The length of maternity leave and family health

Beuchert, Louise; Humlum, Maria Knoth; Vejlin, Rune

doi:10.1016/j.labeco.2016.06.007

Cited by 50 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Stearns () studies the effects of the precursor to PFL (California Temporary Disability Leave or TDI) on birth outcomes in the late 1970s, finding a reduction in pre‐term and low birth weight births. Beuchert, Humlum, and Vejlin () analyze a battery of health outcomes for mothers, newborns, and siblings (including hospitalizations) in the context of a change to paid leave in Denmark that increased average maternity leave from 35 to 40 weeks. Consistent with other evidence on family leave extensions in Scandinavia (Dahl et al., ), they find little to no effects on babies’ health outcomes.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Did California Paid Family Leave Impact Infant Health?

Pihl¹,

Basso²

2018

J Policy Anal Manage

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The effects of paid parental leave policies on infant health have yet to be established. In this paper we investigate these effects by exploiting the introduction of California Paid Family Leave (PFL), the first program in the U.S. that specifically provides working parents with paid time off for bonding with a newborn. We measure health using the full census of infant hospitalizations in California and a set of control states, and implement a differences‐in‐differences approach. Our results suggest a decline in infant admissions, which is concentrated among those causes that are potentially affected by closer childcare (and to a lesser extent breastfeeding). Other admissions that are unlikely to be affected by parental leave do not exhibit the same pattern.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Did California Paid Family Leave Impact Infant Health?

Pihl¹,

Basso²

2018

J Policy Anal Manage

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“…We contribute to the sparse literature that estimates the causal relationship between maternity leave and maternal health in a variety of ways (see for example Chatterji and Markowitz 2005, Baker and Milligan 2008b, Guertzgen and Hank 2014, Beuchert et al 2016.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Maternal Health.

Bütikofer

Riise

Skira³

2018

SSRN Journal

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We examine the impact of the introduction of paid maternity leave in Norway in 1977 on maternal health. Before the policy reform, mothers were eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Mothers giving birth after July 1, 1977 were entitled to 4 months of paid leave and 12 months of unpaid leave. We combine Norwegian administrative data with survey data on the health of women around age 40 and estimate the mediumand long-term impacts of the reform using regression discontinuity and difference-inregression discontinuity designs. Our results suggest paid maternity leave benefits are protective of maternal health. The reform improved a range of maternal health outcomes, including BMI, blood pressure, pain, and mental health, and it increased health-promoting behaviors, such as exercise and not smoking. The effects were larger for first-time and low-resource mothers and women who would have taken little unpaid leave in the absence of the reform. We also study the maternal health effects of subsequent expansions in paid maternity leave and find evidence of diminishing returns to leave length.

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“…changes at the intensive margin) in four different countries cannot find effects on child outcomes (Dustmann and Schönberg, 2011;Würtz Rasmussen, 2010;Dahl et al, 2016;Beuchert et al, 2016;Baker and Milligan, 2008, 2010, 2015. Across these studies, the timing and intensity of the expansion, and the social and institutional contexts (such as female labour force participation rates, the availability of day care, and social norms) vary.…”

Section: State Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beuchert et al (2016) study a paid parental leave expansion from 6 to 11 months in Denmark and find no effects on childrens' hospital visits in the first three years after childbirth. Rossin (2011) also analyses child health outcomes (i.e.…”

mentioning

confidence: 92%

Paid Parental Leave and Child Development: Evidence from the 2007 German Parental Benefit Reform and Administrative Data

2017

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in March 2017Abstract This paper examines the effects of a substantial change in publicly funded paid parental leave in Germany on child development and socio-economic development gaps. For children born before January 1, 2007, parental leave benefits were means-tested and paid for up to 24 months after childbirth. For children born thereafter, parental leave benefits were earnings-related and only paid for up to 14 months. Higher-income households benefited more from the reform than low-income households. We study the reform effects on children's language skills, motor skills, socio-emotional stability, and school readiness using administrative data from mandatory school entrance examinations at age six and a difference-in-differences design. We find no impact of the reform on child development and socio-economic development gaps. The effects are precisely estimated and robust to various model specifications and sample definitions. Our results suggest that such substantial changes in parental leave benefits are unlikely to impact children's development. These findings are consistent with recent studies showing that temporary unrestricted transfers and maternal part-time employment have a limited impact on parental investments in their children.

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The length of maternity leave and family health

Cited by 50 publications

References 23 publications

Did California Paid Family Leave Impact Infant Health?

Did California Paid Family Leave Impact Infant Health?

The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Maternal Health.

Paid Parental Leave and Child Development: Evidence from the 2007 German Parental Benefit Reform and Administrative Data

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