Dani Marinova

Dani Marinova

Associate Professor of Political Science

Recent Publications

Below are selected publications from the past few years. For a full list, please see my CV.

Marinova, Dani M. & de Carvalho, Gabriela. “De-penalizing motherhood? Paternity leave and the redistribution of workplace bias.” Forthcoming in Social Politics.

Abstract Paternity leave policies aim to increase men's caregiving and reduce employer biases against women. Yet fathers' greater visibility as caregivers may itself generate new workplace bias. We examine how Spain's reform — which equalized paternity with maternity leave — reshaped the gender gap in reported workplace discrimination. Drawing on survey data from 3,950 parents and exploiting variation in leave entitlement across birth cohorts, we find the reform did not narrow the gender gap as intended. Mothers report stable and high discrimination across all cohorts — roughly twice fathers' rate — with no post-reform improvement. Fathers, by contrast, report rising discrimination with longer entitlements, from 9.8% to 17.1% across cohort groups. The gender gap narrows not through mothers' gains but through fathers' losses. The monotonic gradient, flat maternal reports, and permutation-based inference all point to the reform as the driver. Non-transferable paternity leave appears to redistribute rather than eliminate workplace bias.

Marinova, Dani & Hellwig, Tim 2026. “Welfare by Design: Public Response to the Distribution of Old Age Pensions.” European Journal of Political Research. Open access. Replication materials.

Marinova, Dani. & Bellón Jiménez, Pedro Manuel. 2025. “Paternity Leave and the Motherhood Penalty: How Within-Couple Inequality Conditions Policy Impact.” Social Policy & Administration. DOI. Pre-print.

Marinova, Dani & León, Margarita. 2025. “Paternity leave take-up in a segmented labor market: A cautionary tale of rapid policy expansion in Spain.” European Journal of Social Policy, 35(4). DOI. Pre-print.

Cañero Ruiz, Julia & Marinova, Danislava. 2025. “Equal and Non‑transferable Entitlement? Preferences Regarding the Parental Leave System in Spain”. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 190, 61–84. Open access.

Fraile, Marta & Marinova, Dani. 2024. “Closing the Gender Gap in Internal Political Efficacy? Gender Roles and the Masculine Ethos of Politics in Spain.” Political Behavior, 46(4), 2287–2311. Open access. Replication materials..