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The Effect of Paid Parental Leave on Child Health in Australia

Barbara Broadway (), Guyonne Kalb, Daniel Kühnle () and Miriam Mäder ()
Additional contact information
Barbara Broadway: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
Daniel Kühnle: University of Duisburg-Essen
Miriam Mäder: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Daniel Kuehnle ()

No 8978, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Providing mothers with access to paid parental leave may be an important public policy to improve child and maternal health. Using extensive information from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Children (LSAC), we contribute to the literature by estimating the effect of paid parental leave entitlements on child health up to age seven. Exploiting detailed information on children's health, family background, mothers' pre-birth work histories and mothers' health behaviours during pregnancy within a propensity score matching framework, we show that paid parental leave entitlements reduce the probability of a child having multiple ongoing health conditions, but do not significantly affect any single condition. We find that the effect on multiple conditions is strongest for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Our study implies that the provision of paid parental leave, even for short periods (as usually available in Australia), will benefit children's health.

Keywords: Australia; parental leave; child health; LSAC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2015-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published as 'Paid Parental Leave and Child Health in Australia' in: Economic Record, 2017, 93 (301), 214-237

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Working Paper: The Effect of Paid Parental Leave on Child Health in Australia (2015) Downloads
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