Who gains from the Swedish family policy? Recent immigrants and “native” families with children labor supply in Sweden

This paper examines fertility and earnings development of recent immigrants in Sweden as a response to Swedish family policy changes. The child-care reform of 2002 is studied. Differences in earnings and fertility behavior between immigrant families and “native” homogenous families are estimated to study the hypothesis that increased accessibility to child-care might be particularly beneficial to the immigrant groups. Data for the period 1997-2009 are employed in the study.
The results of the empirical study argue the presence of a certain life pattern among “native” families having unemployment experience. It seems that this group gains more from combination of childbearing, getting child allowances and unemployment insurance. Nevertheless, all groups increased family labor supply after the reform 2002. There is a slight difference in male and female labor supply between the groups of immigrants, but this is unlikely related to the Swedish family policy and more likely corresponds to ethnic traditions and male and female roles in family.