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The Impact of Paid Parental Leave on Fertility Intentions

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  • Micaela Bassford
  • Hayley Fisher

Abstract

Paid parental leave is an important part of family policy in OECD countries. Australia's Paid Parental Leave scheme was introduced in 2011 and provides 18 weeks of leave paid at the full‐time minimum wage for the primary carer of a child. We estimate the effect of access to paid parental leave on women's fertility intentions by exploiting the differential impact of the scheme for women working in the public and private sectors. We find that the scheme's announcement had no impact on fertility intentions at the extensive margin but that, conditional on intending to have at least one (more) child, the number of children intended increases by 0.34, a 16 per cent increase. This effect is concentrated among highly educated women. As it has been shown that fertility intentions predict fertility outcomes, these results suggest that even modest paid parental leave programs can increase the fertility of working women and so moderate the declines in fertility rates seen in many developed countries.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:96:y:2020:i:315:p:402-430
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-4932.12561
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    Cited by:

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    2. Anam Bilgrami & Kompal Sinha & Henry Cutler, 2020. "The impact of introducing a national scheme for paid parental leave on maternal mental health outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(12), pages 1657-1681, December.
    3. Mooi-Reci, Irma & Trinh, Trong-Anh & Vera-Toscano, Esperanza & Wooden, Mark, 2023. "The impact of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic on fertility intentions," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    4. Belinda Hewitt, 2021. "The Dynamics of Family Formation and Dissolution," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(4), pages 506-517, December.
    5. Girsberger, Esther Mirjam & Hassani-Nezhad, Lena & Karunanethy, Kalaivani & Lalive, Rafael, 2023. "Mothers at work: How mandating a short maternity leave affects work and fertility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell & Trinh, Trong-Anh & Yew, Siew Ling, 2022. "Local crime and fertility," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 312-331.
    7. Cheng-Tao Tang & Chun Yee Wong & Ayush Batzorig, 2022. "Do Financial Incentives on High Parity Birth Affect Fertility? Evidence from the Order of Glorious Mother in Mongolia," Working Papers EMS_2022_01, Research Institute, International University of Japan.

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