When Dad Can Stay Home: Fathers' Workplace Flexibility and Maternal Health

Petra Persson and Maya Rossin-Slater

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2024, vol. 16, issue 4, 186-219

Abstract: We study how fathers' access to workplace flexibility affects maternal postpartum health. We use variation from a Swedish reform that granted new fathers more flexibility to take intermittent parental leave during the postpartum period and show that increasing the father's temporal flexibility—and thereby his ability to be present at home together with the mother—reduces the incidence of maternal postpartum health complications. Our results suggest that mothers bear part of the burden from a lack of workplace flexibility for men because a father's inability to respond to domestic shocks exacerbates the maternal health cost of childbearing.

JEL-codes: D13 I12 J13 J16 J22 J32 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1257/app.20220400

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