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J Labor Res (2014) 35:105132
DOI 10.1007/s12122-014-9181-9
Colin Cannonier
Published online: 2 May 2014# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), implemented in August 1993, grants job-protected leave to any employee satisfying the eligibility criteria. One of the provisions of the FMLA is to allow women to stay at home for a maximum period of 12 weeks to give care to the newborn. The effect of this legislation on the fertility response of eligible women has received little attention by researchers. This study analyzes whether the FMLA has influenced birth outcomes in the U.S. Specifically, I evaluate the effect of the FMLA by comparing the changes in the birth hazard profiles of women who became eligible for FMLA benefits such as maternity leave, to the changes in the control group who were not eligible for such leave. Using a discrete-time hazard model, results from the difference-in-differences estimation indicate that eligible women increase the probability of having a first and second birth by about 1.5 and0.6 % per annum, respectively. Compared to other women, eligible women are giving birth to the first child a year earlier and about 8.5 months earlier for the second child.
Keywords Family and medical leave act . FMLA . Fertility . Births . Hazard models . Maternity leave . Difference-in-differences
JEL classification I18 . J00 . J13 . J18
Introduction
Since the 1990s, family-friendly policies such as maternity leave have increased throughout the United States. Universal maternity leave has become an important topic of discussion regarding its contribution to various aspects of work and family life, in particular, the effect on decisions related to childbearing (Noble 1993; Ife and Jen Kelly 2008; Brown 2009; Folbre 2010; Saltzman 2010).
For most countries, especially those in Europe such as Austria and Sweden, pronatalist policiesthose designed to encourage fertility behaviorare quite common
C. Cannonier (*)
Belmont University, Nashville, TN, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Does the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Increase Fertility Behavior?
106 J Labor Res (2014) 35:105132
where parental leave is sufficiently generous allowing mothers to have two or possibly three separate gestations within the same leave period. In addition, these countries have provisions ensuring that employees are compensated while on leave. This is in...