What do prospective parents know about family welfare incentives? Evidence from Hungary and the United States

ABSTRACTCountries facing population decline have increasingly turned to family welfare incentives to encourage higher fertility. Quantitative analyses have revealed mixed evidence that these policies are effective. However, it remains unknown how much individuals know about their countries' family welfare policies. The extent of men’s welfare knowledge in particular remains unexamined. Relying on 26 interviews with prospective parents in Hungary (N = 11) and the US (N = 15), this study examines what knowledge prospective parents have of family welfare policies in two distinct welfare contexts: Hungary, where certain individuals are heavily rewarded for having three or more children, and the US, where individuals do not receive significant financial support for having any number of children. Findings from this study demonstrate how policy knowledge is shaped by the public versus private nature of the welfare state. This study also reveals how policy measures can shape the gendered division of labor years before a child is born – a fruitful area for future research.KEYWORDS: Family welfarepolicy knowledgegender equitycross-nationalparenthood Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 There are a limited series of Nordic studies on men’s fertility awareness in family planning (Bodin et al., Citation2017; Schmidt et al., Citation2022), but none to date on men’s awareness of government family welfare incentives.2 Hungary does have a protected five days of paid leave that fathers can take after the birth of a child but this is not referred to as a separate paternity leave (Gábos & Makay, Citation2022, p. 274).3 The California survey also found that Latino respondents had less awareness of the state’s paid family leave law than non-Latino counterparts.4 Though I posted on social media groups targeted to New York residents, two respondents had moved to Austin, Texas and one to Chicago, Illinois at the time of the interview. As these cities are major urban centers with similar socio-political environments, I retained these interviews in the final sample. Texas and Illinois do have different family welfare policy offerings than New York. However, this study focuses on respondents’ knowledge of federal, state, and employer family supports, rather than actual policy offerings.5 The Hungarian and US samples were not limited by age, though the median age in each sample was 26 years old.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Central European University.Notes on contributorsErica MildnerErica Mildner is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of British Columbia. She received her MA in Gender Studies from Central European University. Her research focuses on gender, labor, and family welfare policies.