Did California Paid Family Leave Impact Infant Health?

Abstract

The effects of paid parental leave policies on infant health have yet to be established. In this paper we investigate these effects by exploiting the introduction of California Paid Family Leave (PFL), the first program in the U.S. that specifically provides working parents with paid time off for bonding with a newborn. We measure health using the full census of infant hospitalizations in California and a set of control states, and implement a differences‐in‐differences approach. Our results suggest a decline in infant admissions, which is concentrated among those causes that are potentially affected by closer childcare (and to a lesser extent breastfeeding). Other admissions that are unlikely to be affected by parental leave do not exhibit the same pattern.

Family Policy and Complex Contemporary Families: A Decade in Review and Implications for the Next Decade of Research and Policy Practice

“…It also increased leave‐taking among fathers in dual‐earner households, particularly in association with first births (Bartel, Rossin‐Slater, Ruhm, Stearns, & Waldfogel, ). Effects on children have also been quite positive, with analyses revealing declines in infant hospitalizations for reasons potentially associated with the caregiving environment (Pihl & Basso, ) and improved elementary school health, particularly for less‐advantaged children (Lichtman‐Sadot & Bell, ). In addition, the policy significantly reduced the proportion of the elderly that used nursing homes, as employees can take time off to provide informal care for elders (Arora & Wolf, ).…”

Attitudes about Paid Parental Leave In the U.S.

“…Moreover, scholars find that paid parental leave is associated with health benefits for both mothers and infants (Aitken et al 2015;Bullinger 2019;Gault et al 2014;Tanaka 2005). For instance, empirical evidence indicates that the introduction of the California Paid Family Leave program gave rise to an escalation in exclusive breastfeeding and a decline in infant hospitalization (Hamad, Modrek, and White 2019;Huang and Yang 2015;Pihl and Basso 2019). Furthermore, paid parental leave, when taken by fathers, seems to lead to enhanced levels of paternal involvement in children's lives, the quality of father-child relations, the quality of parents' relationships, and parents' relationship stability (Author citation; Knoester, Petts, and Pragg 2019;Petts and Knoester 2018;).…”

Employer-Reported Access to Paid Parental Leave: A study of San Francisco’s Paid Parental Leave Ordinance

“…Past research links paid family leave policies with increased breastfeeding ( Hamad et al, 2018 ; Huang & Yang, 2015 ; Pac et al, 2019 ), fewer low birthweight and small-for-gestational-age births ( Rossin, 2011 ; Stearns, 2015 ), decreased infant hospitalizations ( Pihl & Basso, 2019 ), and decreased infant mortality rates ( Tanaka, 2005 ). Several of these studies focused specifically on California's recent paid family leave expansions ( Hamad et al, 2018 ; Huang & Yang, 2015 ; Pac et al, 2019 ; Pihl & Basso, 2019 ; Stearns, 2015 ). Recent studies also suggest that the health benefits of paid leave extend beyond infancy, including reduced likelihood of childhood abusive head trauma, obesity, ADHD, hearing problems, and ear infections ( Klevens et al, 2016 ; Lichtman-Sadot & Bell, 2017 ).…”

“…In California, where the state's Paid Family Leave (PFL) program provides partial wage replacement (including for parental child bonding leave) to most private-sector workers, take-up varies according to individual and employer characteristics: workers in the lowest income quartile and in small firms (who are also least likely to qualify for job protection), are underrepresented among PFL claimants ( Bana, Bedard, & Rossin-Slater, 2018 ). The past few years have seen increasing attention to paid leave in California, as the longest running program in the U.S. ( Bailey et al, 2019 ; Bartel et al, 2018 ; Baum & Ruhm, 2016 ; Hamad et al, 2018 ; Lichtman-Sadot & Bell, 2017 ; Pac et al, 2019 ; Pihl & Basso, 2019 ; Rossin-Slater et al, 2013 )…”