IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v106y2016i5p242-46.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Paid Parental Leave Laws in the United States: Does Short-Duration Leave Affect Women's Labor-Force Attachment?

Author

Listed:
  • Tanya S. Byker

Abstract

I analyze the effects of short-duration paid parental leave on maternal labor supply. Using monthly longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, my event-study research design estimates impacts of paid leave laws in California and New Jersey on women's labor-force outcomes around childbirth. I find that paid leave laws are associated with a substantial increase in labor-force attachment in the months directly around birth. While US-style short-duration leave is unlikely to change prolonged exits from the labor force, my findings imply that paid leave laws induce some women stay more attached to jobs, particularly low-skill women.

Suggested Citation

  • Tanya S. Byker, 2016. "Paid Parental Leave Laws in the United States: Does Short-Duration Leave Affect Women's Labor-Force Attachment?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 242-246, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:106:y:2016:i:5:p:242-46
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.p20161118
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/10605/P2016_1118_data.zip
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10605/P2016_1118_ds.zip
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rafael Lalive & Josef Zweimüller, 2009. "How Does Parental Leave Affect Fertility and Return to Work? Evidence from Two Natural Experiments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1363-1402.
    2. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2013. "Female Labor Supply: Why Is the United States Falling Behind?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 251-256, May.
    3. Christopher J. Ruhm, 1998. "The Economic Consequences of Parental Leave Mandates: Lessons from Europe," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(1), pages 285-317.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2021. "Too family friendly? The consequences of parent part-time working rights," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    2. Landais, Camille & Kleven, Henrik & Posch, Johanna & Steinhauer, Andreas & Zweimüller, Josef, 2020. "Do Family Policies Reduce Gender Inequality? Evidence from 60 Years of Policy Experimentation," CEPR Discussion Papers 15437, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Persson, Petra & Rossin-Slater, Maya, 2019. "When Dad Can Stay Home: Fathers' Workplace Flexibility and Maternal Health," IZA Discussion Papers 12386, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Canaan, Serena, 2022. "Parental leave, household specialization and children’s well-being," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. E. Mark Curtis & Barry T. Hirsch & Mary C. Schroeder, 2016. "Evaluating Workplace Mandates with Flows Versus Stocks: An Application to California Paid Family Leave," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(2), pages 501-526, October.
    6. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2017. "The Economic Consequences of Family Policies: Lessons from a Century of Legislation in High-Income Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 205-230, Winter.
    7. Aslim, Erkmen Giray & Panovska, Irina & Taş, M. Anıl, 2021. "Macroeconomic effects of maternity leave legislation in emerging economies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    8. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2017. "The Economic Consequences of Family Policies: Lessons from a Century of Legislation," Working Papers 811, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    9. Alzbeta Mullerova, 2016. "Mind the employment gap: an impact evaluation of the Czech multi-speed parental benefit reform," EconomiX Working Papers 2016-30, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    10. Paule-Paludkiewicz, Hannah, 2020. "Does the Right to Work Part-Time Affect Mothers' Labor Market Outcomes?," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224556, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Regmi, Krishna & Wang, Le, 2022. "Maternity Leave," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1184, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    12. Brenøe, Anne Ardila & Canaan, Serena & Harmon, Nikolaj & Royer, Heather, 2019. "Is Parental Leave Costly for Firms and Coworkers?," IZA Discussion Papers 12870, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Sarah H. Bana & Kelly Bedard & Maya Rossin‐Slater, 2020. "The Impacts of Paid Family Leave Benefits: Regression Kink Evidence from California Administrative Data," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 888-929, September.
    14. Courtney Coile & Maya Rossin-Slater & Amanda Su, 2022. "The Impact of Paid Family Leave on Families with Health Shocks," NBER Working Papers 30739, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Mathias Huebener & Jonas Jessen & Daniel Kuehnle & Michael Oberfichtner, 2022. "Parental Leave, Worker Substitutability, and Firms' Employment," Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers 0007, Berlin School of Economics.
    16. Karimi, Arizo & Lindahl, Erica & Skogman Thoursie, Peter, 2012. "Labour supply responses to paid parental leave," Working Paper Series 2012:22, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    17. Matthias Doepke & Anne Hannusch & Fabian Kindermann & Michèle Tertilt, 2022. "The Economics of Fertility: A New Era," NBER Working Papers 29948, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Natalia Danzer & Victor Lavy, 2018. "Paid Parental Leave and Children's Schooling Outcomes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(608), pages 81-117, February.
    19. Micaela Bassford & Hayley Fisher, 2020. "The Impact of Paid Parental Leave on Fertility Intentions," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(315), pages 402-430, December.
    20. Libertad González Luna & Lidia Farré, 2017. "The effects of paternity leave on fertility and labor market outcomes," Economics Working Papers 1572, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:106:y:2016:i:5:p:242-46. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.