The effects of paid family leave—does it help fathers’ health, too?

Jiyoon Kim ()
Additional contact information
Jiyoon Kim: Bryn Mawr College

Journal of Population Economics, 2024, vol. 37, issue 1, No 19, 37 pages

Abstract: Abstract I investigate the effects of California’s paid family leave (CA-PFL) program, the first state-mandated paid leave available to both mothers and fathers in the US. I examine the effects on the overall health of mothers and fathers during two distinct periods: health immediately around childbirth and health following childbirth. To do so, I leverage the variation in the timing of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) health care topical module relative to the exact year and month of childbirth. I find that CA-PFL has improved mothers’ health during pregnancy and immediately after childbirth. This improvement in health is accompanied by a reduced likelihood of mothers not working or taking unpaid work absence. Some improvements manifest in fathers’ health too during the same period. However, I observe that fathers report more instances of feeling sick, starting around 5 months after childbirth. Further analysis reveals that the share of fathers not working or taking unpaid work absence rises temporarily when the leave period ends. Understanding the effects on fathers’ health and leave utilization is pivotal to evaluating the program’s overall benefits and potential unintended consequences given the growing focus on enhancing equal access to paid leave for both mothers and fathers.

Keywords: Paid family leave; California; Fathers; Health; SIPP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 I38 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00148-024-00994-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:37:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s00148-024-00994-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... tion/journal/148/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s00148-024-00994-0

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Population Economics is currently edited by K.F. Zimmermann

More articles in Journal of Population Economics from Springer, European Society for Population Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().