Family Policy Measurement Tool: Advanced Methodologies for Understanding Inequalities in Family Policy

ended

Family policies impact upon many aspects of people’s lives such as couples’ income dynamics, engagement in childcare activities or labour market participation. However, the degree to which these mechanisms vary between people with different socio-economic statuses is not well understood. Consequently, we don’t know who benefits from these policies and who is losing out on support. A policy measurement tool capable of recognising the family policy entitlements of each individual would provide an unprecedented insight into how well specific populations are protected against various social risks. Not only that, it would allow researchers to map the generosity of family policies across countries with greater accuracy and to test the effect of family policies on human behaviour with greater precision. Insufficient knowledge of the mechanisms through which policies influence people’s lives and the potentially differential effect of various family policies on people’s income and living conditions considerably limit our ability to provide effective policy recommendations that would lead to desirable outcomes. This MSCA Fellowship aims to create such a measurement tool and use it in the investigation of gender and socio-economic inequality in access to family policy support for families with young children (maternity, paternity, parental and childcare leave, child-related cash benefits, and childcare allowances). The main objectives of this MSCA Fellowship are (1) to improve existing policy measurement tools to advance our ability to recognise and analyse structural inequalities in access to family policy support, (2) to investigate gender and socio-economic inequalities in access to family policies across EU and EEA countries, and (3) to explore gender and socio-economic differences in awareness about family policy entitlements and preferences for uptake.