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Parental Leave and Children's Schooling Outcomes: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from a Large Parental Leave Reform

Author Info

  • Danzer, Natalia

    ()

    (Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

  • Lavy, Victor

    ()

    (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)

Abstract

This paper investigates the question whether long-term human capital outcomes are affected by the duration of maternity leave, i.e. by the time mothers spend at home with their newborn before returning to work. Employing RD and difference-in-difference approaches, this paper exploits an unanticipated reform in Austria which extended the maximum duration of paid and job protected parental leave from 12 to 24 months for children born on July 1, 1990 or later. We use test scores from the Austrian PISA test of birth cohorts 1990 and 1987 as measure of human capital. The evidence suggest no significant overall impact of the extended parental leave mandate on standardized test scores at age 15, but that the subgroup of boys of highly educated mothers have benefited from this reform while boys of low educated mothers were harmed by it.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 7626.

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Length: 51 pages
Date of creation: Sep 2013
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7626
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Keywords: parental leave reform; maternal employment; human capital; child development; cognitive skills;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
  • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
  • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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  1. Christopher J. Ruhm, 1998. "Parental Leave and Child Health," NBER Working Papers 6554, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Christian Dustmann & Uta Schönberg, 2012. "Expansions in Maternity Leave Coverage and Children's Long-Term Outcomes," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 190-224, July.
  3. Morrill, Melinda Sandler, 2011. "The effects of maternal employment on the health of school-age children," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 240-257, March.
  4. Ruhm, Christopher J., 2008. "Maternal employment and adolescent development," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 958-983, October.
  5. Michael Baker & Kevin Milligan, 2008. "Evidence From Maternity Leave Expansions of the Impact of Maternal Care on Early Child Development," NBER Working Papers 13826, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Nicole Schneeweis & Martina Zweimüller, 2009. "Early tracking and the misfortune of being young," Economics working papers 2009-11, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
  7. Liu, Qian & Nordström Skans, Oskar, 2009. "The Duration of Paid Parental Leave and Children's Scholastic Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 4244, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  8. Michael Baker & Kevin S. Milligan, 2007. "Maternal employment, breastfeeding, and health: Evidence from maternity leave mandates," NBER Working Papers 13188, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Neyer, Gerda, 2003. "Family Policies and Low Fertility in Western Europe," Discussion Paper 161, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
  10. Gennetian, Lisa A. & Hill, Heather D. & London, Andrew S. & Lopoo, Leonard M., 2010. "Maternal employment and the health of low-income young children," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 353-363, May.
  11. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Parental Employment and Child Cognitive Development," NBER Working Papers 7666, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  12. Raquel Bernal & Michael P. Keane, 2011. "Child Care Choices and Children's Cognitive Achievement: The Case of Single Mothers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(3), pages 459 - 512.
  13. Michael Baker & Kevin S. Milligan, 2011. "Maternity Leave and Children's Cognitive and Behavioral Development," NBER Working Papers 17105, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  14. Blau, Francine D & Grossberg, Adam J, 1992. "Maternal Labor Supply and Children's Cognitive Development," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(3), pages 474-81, August.
  15. 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, Oxford University Press, vol. 124(3), pages 1363-1402.
  16. Gerda R. Neyer, 2003. "Family policies and low fertility in Western Europe," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2003-021, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
  17. Rasmussen, Astrid Würtz, 2010. "Increasing the length of parents' birth-related leave: The effect on children's long-term educational outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 91-100, January.
  18. Sakiko Tanaka, 2005. "Parental leave and child health across OECD countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(501), pages F7-F28, 02.
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Cited by:

  1. Christina Felfe & Judith Saurer, 2014. "Granting Birthright Citizenship - A Door Opener for Immigrant Children's Educational Participation and Success," CESifo Working Paper Series 4959, CESifo Group Munich.
  2. Katrin Huber, 2015. "Moving to an Earnings-Related Parental Leave System: Do Heterogeneous Effects on Parents Make Some Children Worse Off?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 791, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  3. Huber, Katrin, 2015. "Moving to an earnings-related parental leave system do heterogeneous effects on parents make some children worse off?," Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113044, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
  4. Barbara Broadway & Guyonne Kalb, 2015. "The Effect of Paid Parental Leave on Child Health in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2015n09, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
  5. JAMES, Jonathan & VUJIC, Suncica, 2016. "From high school to the high chair: Education and fertility timing," Working Papers 2016005, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics.
  6. Michael Baker & Kevin Milligan, 2015. "Maternity leave and children’s cognitive and behavioral development," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(2), pages 373-391, April.
  7. Christina Felfe & Judith Saurer, 2015. "Granting Birthright Citizenship – A Door Opener for Immigrant Children's Educational Participation and Success?," Ifo Working Paper Series Ifo Working Paper No. 208, Ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.

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