the determinants of female labour force participation cont accordingly the expanded provision of child care services for the under s was found to have a weaker effect on female employment rates in continental and southern european countries where it may have merely converted the informal into formal child care akunduz and plantenga by contrast there was no effect among poorly educated women thevenon estimates that higher tax rates for second earners deter woman from working although that effect is tempered in an institutional environment which is friendly to a worklife balance the effect of financial incentives is greatest in englishspeaking countries where female employment rates appear to be reduced by increases in the duration of paid leave andor the relative tax rates affecting second earners in couple families this finding makes sense in countries where labour markets are flexible enough to allow workers to move in and out of the labour force and where working hours can be adjusted to family needs and constraints like high child care costs