Effects of Paid Family Leave Policy on Women’s Fertility Decisions and Career Outcomes in the US
Cao, Betty
2020
- Using data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of Current Population Survey (CPS) data from 1999 to 2018, I examine the effects of California’s 2004 paid family leave program (CA-PFL) on the fertility decisions and career outcomes of various population groups in California, including women of childbearing age (19-45), recent mothers, young women (18-41), and first-time new mothers. ... read moreI employ a differences-in-differences (DD) approach to compare the women in California and the control states on outcomes of interest before and after 2004, the year when CA-PFL took effect. I find four long-term trends across various population groups: first, CA-PFL caused maternity leave usage to increase by 20 to 67 percent across women aged 19-45 and the subgroup of recent mothers; second, women aged 19- 45 and recent mothers tended to have fewer children after the implementation of paid leave, an effect ranging from 4.76 to 5.33 percent; third, labor force participation rose by 3 to 4 percent in recent mothers and young women (18-41); fourth, earnings among recent and new mothers increased by roughly 11 percent. Stratified analyses by race and college education further show that paid leave is more impactful on the leave take-up, fertility decisions, and hours worked among relatively disadvantaged women who, prior to 2004 when CA-PFL was implemented, had difficulty accessing the paid leave. One limitation of my results is that the number of children among the women of childbearing age fails the common trend assumption, which weakens the causality of the related findings.read less
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