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Table 5 Description of macro policy and institutional indicators

From: Female labour market participation in Europe: novel evidence on trends and shaping factors

Final variable

Original variable

Description

Source

Institutions

Employment Protection Legislation

Composite indicator of employment protection which refers both to regulations concerning hiring

 
  

(e.g. rules favouring disadvantaged groups, conditions for using temporary or fixed-term contracts,

 
  

training requirements) and firing (e.g. redundancy procedures, mandated prenotification periods and

 
  

severance payments, special requirements for collective dismissals and short-time work schemes).

OECD, various years

 

Passive Labour Market Policies

Sum of national expenditures on active labour market policies (in percentage of national GDP),

 
  

including: Out-of-work income maintenance and support, Early retirement.

OECD, various years

 

Active Labour Market Policies

Sum of national expenditures on active labour market policies (in percentage of national GDP),

 
  

including: Training, Job Rotation and Job Sharing, Employment incentives, Supported employment

 
  

and rehabilitation, Direct job creation, Start-up incentives.

OECD, various years

Policies

Elderly Subsidies

Sum of national transfers to the elderly population (per head at constant prices (2000) and constant PPPs

 
  

(2000), in US dollars), weighted by the percentage of old-age population (over 70 years old) within the country.

 
  

This set of policies includes: Old age cash and in kind benefits, Residential care or Home-help services.

OECD, various years

 

Family Subsidies

Sum of national expenditures on allowances and other type of monthly transfers to the households

 
  

(per family at constant prices (2000) and constant PPPs(2000), in US dollars). We consider a weighted

 
  

sum of monthly family allowances for the first, second, and third child in national currency, with weights

 
  

equal to the average number of children a woman would have if she lived to the end of her childbearing

 
  

years (conventionally considered to be 15-44 but sometimes 15-49) and bore children at the prevailing

 
  

rate for each age during that period. Value of tax and benefit transfers of one-earner-two-parent two-child

 
  

families are considered. The value was calculated by subtracting the disposable income (after taxes and

 
  

transfers) of a one-earner-two-parent-two-child family from that of a comparable childless single earner.

Gauthier (2011a)

 

Paternal Leave

Composite indicator of national expenditures on maternity, parental, and child care leave schemes. It is a

 
  

weighted sum of the total number of weeks of maternity, parental and child-care leave, with weights equal

 
  

to the cash benefits paid during the leave as a percent of female wages in manufacturing.

Gauthier (2011b)