Swedish parental leave in the perspective of European integration

Recently, the issue of whether social protection is harmful to economic performance has been much debated among politicians and researchers. This paper sheds light on this issue by studying a particular form of social protection, namely maternal and parental leave programs, taking Sweden as a test case. The paper gives an overview of the maternal and parental leave programs and benefits of the EU and former EFTA-countries and compares these programs with the Swedish one. The Swedish system is described in detail. The paper also reviews and summarizes research findings on the use of benefits by Swedish mothers and fathers and on the effects of the program on work incentives, child spacing and wage growth.