Can Parental Leave Policies Change Leave-Taking Norms? Evidence from Immigrants

Delia Furtado, Samantha Trajkovski and Nikolaos Theodoropoulos

No 2560, RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series from ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin)

Abstract: When maternity leave policies lower the cost of taking leave, leave durations tend to increase. If enough people extend their leaves, social norms can shift, further reinforcing longer leave-taking. This paper examines whether foreign-born mothers in the US-who are not directly subject to home country policies-respond to policy changes abroad via norms. Exploiting variation in US birth timing and policy reforms abroad, we find that increases in paid leave in immigrants' home countries lead to longer US maternity leaves, even after accounting for country-of-origin fixed effects. Heterogeneity analyses and placebo tests also point to policy-induced shifting leave-taking norms.

Keywords: Maternity Leave; Gender Norms; Immigrants; Female Labor Supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J15 J18 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:crm:wpaper:2560

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