The determinants of female labour force participation (cont.) Accordingly, the expanded provision of child care services for the under 3s 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, 2015). By contrast, there was no effect among poorly educated women. Thevenon (2013, 2015) 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 work-life balance. The effect of financial incentives is greatest in English-speaking countries, where female employment rates appear to be reduced by increases in the duration of paid leave and/or 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.