Sign In
SHARE
What Are the Benefits of Longer Maternity Leave?
Not much, according to a new working paper by Astrid Würtz, a Danish economist.
In 1984, Denmark increased the amount of time parents could take off after the birth of newborns by 50 percent from 14 to 20 weeks. Würtz exploited this change to find out what happened to the 8,600 childern born within two months of when the new law went into effect.
She found no difference between the two groups of children when measuring their reading scores at age 15, high school enrollment levels, or high school GPAs at the age of 21.
Another study along these lines by Michael Baker of the University of Toronto and Kevin Milligan of the University of British Columbia found that after maternity leave was extended in Canada, mothers spent more time breastfeeding their children. However, Baker and Milligan didn't find any improvements in childrens' health levels as a result of the change.
Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that extended parental leave doesn't do any good for children.
First, increased use of day care services in Denmark might have offset any negative repercussions associated with "only" 14 weeks of leave, says Würtz.
Second, Würtz looked at long-term effects of the new Danish law. It's very possible that benefits existed, but were only noticeable in the short-term.
And third, gains could show up in softer attributes, or, perhaps, more than 20 weeks of leave are needed to see any of the possible advantages of longer parental leave.
Loading...
Thank you for registering as a Portfolio.com Insider. Your comment has been added.
Create Your Public Profile
- The Year in Research
- Dec 31 2008 9:13AM EST
- Mind Your Value Judgements
- Dec 19 2008 7:52PM EST
- S.E.C. Short-Sale Ban: Pretty Much Useless
- Dec 19 2008 3:45PM EST
- Advice from Japan: Don't Forget TARP 1
- Dec 19 2008 2:31PM EST
- Chart of the Day: Money Market Stress Easing
- Dec 18 2008 8:57PM EST
- House Price Bubble Deflated?
- Dec 18 2008 5:57PM EST
- Where Were the Whistleblowers?
- Dec 16 2008 11:03PM EST
- It's Just a Recession
- Dec 13 2008 10:20PM EST
- Comparing American and European Unemployment Insurance
- Dec 12 2008 7:46PM EST
- Back to Normal?
- Dec 11 2008 4:33PM EST
- Chart of the Day: Japan Under Quantitative Easing
- Dec 10 2008 4:11PM EST
- Don't Cry for Capitalism
- Dec 9 2008 4:13PM EST
- Can We Remember the Pain of Bubbles Past?
- Dec 8 2008 4:58PM EST
- The Pain to Come
- Dec 5 2008 6:04PM EST
- The Lending Standards Red Herring
- Dec 4 2008 3:34PM EST
Archive
Categories
Links
- Email me
- Geary Behaviour Centre
- NBER Working Papers
- Social Science Statistics Blog
- Decision Science News
- Freakonomics
- New York Federal Reserve Research
- Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
- Marginal Revolution
- EconTalk
- MoneyScience
- VoxEU
- Journal of Interest
- Bluematter
- Economist's View
- Research Recap
- Social Science Research Network
- Institute for the Study of Labor
- EconPapers
- Real Time Economics
- Center for Economic Policy Research
- B.I.S. Working Papers
- C.B.O. Director's Blog
- Federal Reserve Working Papers
- Institute for the Study of Labor
- O.E.C.D. Factblog
- Philadelphia Fed Research
- St. Louis Fed Research
- Sabernomics
- Sabermetric Research
- Economic Principals
- Numbers Guy
- Econbrowser
- STATS Blog
- Jeff Frankel
- Junk Charts
- Predictably/Irrational
- Tim Harford
- TierneyLab
- Curious Capitalist
- DataPoints: The Dismal Scientist Blog
