Outcomes of the Two 1990s Family Policy Reforms at the Turn of the 2000s in Finland

Authors

• Anita Haataja

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23979/fypr.45011

Keywords:

family policy, child home care allowance, child allowance, parental leave bene?ts, labor market, gender, microsimulation

Abstract

Finnish family policy faced two rather different reform waves in the 1990s. They were
justi? ed by saving public spending but relied on different social policy philosophies. The
article assesses the impact of the reforms on public spending and poverty rates at the
turn of the 2000s. The method is based on tax-bene? t models and representative micro
data, i.e. on static microsimulation. The results suggest that the increased poverty is
due more to changes in the socioeconomic structure than changes in the levels of family
policy bene? ts, even though the biggest cutbacks in the reforms focused on families with
small children and single parents. The reforms also had an impact on gender relations
by offering more incentives to reinforce than alleviate the traditional division of child
care and paid work between the parents. That in part may have affected the mothers
labor market position and increased income differences between families.