Parental Leave Policies and Parents' Employment and Leave-Taking / Wen-Jui Han, Christopher Ruhm, Jane Waldfogel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Han, Wen-Jui.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Ruhm, Christopher.

Waldfogel, Jane.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w13697.

NBER working paper series no. w13697

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2007.

Summary:

Utilizing data from the June Current Population Survey (CPS) Fertility Supplement merged with data from other months of the CPS, we describe trends in parents' employment and leave-taking after birth of a newborn and analyze the extent to which these behaviors are associated with parental leave policies. The period we examine -- 1987 to 2004 -- is one in which such policies were expanded at both the state and federal level. We also provide the first comprehensive evidence as to how these expansions are correlated with employment and leave-taking for both mothers and fathers over this period. Our main finding is that leave expansions have increased the amount of time that new mothers and fathers spend on leave, with effects that are small in absolute terms but large relative to the baseline for men and much greater for college-educated women than for their counterparts with less schooling.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2007.