Competition and Career Advancement: The Hidden Costs of Paid Leave

Julian V. Johnsen (), Hyejin Ku and Kjell G Salvanes
Additional contact information
Julian V. Johnsen: SNF, Bergen

No 13596, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Does leave-taking matter for young workers' careers? If so, why? We propose the competition effect—relative leave status of workers affecting their relative standing inside the firm—as a new explanation. Exploiting a policy reform that exogenously assigned four-week paid paternity leave to some new fathers, we find evidence consistent with the competition effect: A worker enjoys a better post-child earnings trajectory when a larger share of his colleagues take leave because of the policy. In contrast, we find no direct earnings effect resulting from the worker's own leave when controlling for their relative leave eligibility status within the firm.

Keywords: tournament; ranking; career interruptions; leave of absence; promotion; gender gap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J22 J24 J31 M51 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published - latest version published online as 'Competition and Career Advancement' in: Review of Economic Studies, 13 October 2024

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Related works:
Working Paper: Competition and Career Advancement: The Hidden Costs of Paid Leave (2020)
Working Paper: Competition and Career Advancement:The Hidden Costs of Paid Leave (2020)
Working Paper: Competition and Career Advancement: The Hidden Costs of Paid Leave (2020)
Working Paper: Competition and Career Advancement: The Hidden Costs of Paid Leave (2020)
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