Codebook of Historical Database on Maternity Leave (HDML)

The Historical Database on Maternity Leave (HDML) provides data on paid maternity leave policies in 164 independent nation states with a population of more than 500,000 during the period from 1883 until 2018. The original purpose of this dataset is to examine whether international standards of ILO Maternity Protection conventions influence the historical development of maternity policy in nation states. Since the standards of ILO Maternity Protection conventions are composed of the amount of benefit, duration of benefit, legal coverage, and financing, this database contains domestic standards for these four variables. In addition the HDML also provide information about conditionalities of maternity benefits and form of benefits.