Venue: The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, 1 Towerview Drive, Durham, NC 27708-0120

 

Presentation

Parental Leave Policies and Parents' Employment and Leave-Taking

Authors:

Presenter: Christopher Ruhm (University of North Carolina, Greensboro)

Discussant: Ted Joyce (City University, New York)

Session: Economic aspects of maternal employment and maternal and infant health

Room: Classroom C

When: Wednesday 10:30 a.m. - noon

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 in the months immediately after they have a new child and analyze the extent to which these behaviors are affected by parental leave policies. The period we examine – from 1987 to 2004 -- is one in which such policies were expanded at both the state and federal level, and we provide the first comprehensive evidence as to how these expansions affected 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.