Quebec, Canada: Higher Parental Insurance/Parental Leave Boost Birthrates
A study (Policy and Fertility, a Case Study of the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan by Benoît Laplante) finds that Quebec's implementation of its own parental insurance plan (QPIP) in 2006 significantly boosted fertility rates, especially among highly educated women. The effect varied by education level.
Why it matters: The QPIP was the last of three family policy measures Quebec implemented in 1997. It was designed to help women better balance motherhood and careers by providing more generous parental leave benefits than the federal employment insurance (EI) program. The findings suggest it achieved its primary goal of enabling women, including the highly educated, to have the children they want.
Details:
QPIP offers a higher max insurable income ($88K vs. $60K for EI in 2022), 55-75% income replacement rate, and 3-5 weeks of leave reserved for fathers
It was implemented in 2006 after a court battle, replacing EI maternity/parental leave in Quebec
The other Quebec family policy measures were a new child allowance and a low-fee childcare program
After QPIP started, fertility rates rose 17% for Quebec women without high school, 46% for high school grads, 8% for non-university post-secondary, and 27% for university grads
University-educated women had the highest fertility rates both before and after 2006
In Ontario under EI, fertility was flat or declined slightly in all education groups over the same period
Methodology: The researcher modeled fertility rates by age and education in Quebec and Ontario before (1996-2005) and after (2007-2017) QPIP using difference-in-differences Poisson regression and Canadian labor force survey data. Integrating the models yielded total fertility rate estimates by education group.
Bottomline: Parental leave policies that provide strong financial support, including for higher earners, and encourage gender equality appear to significantly impact fertility decisions. With birth rates falling in many developed countries, the Quebec policy offers a part of the puzzle to enable families to have as many children as they want.