The effect of prenatal maternity leave on short and long-term child outcomes

Ahammer, Alexander; Halla, Martin; Schneeweis, Nicole

doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.102250

Cited by 25 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…9 Related, Malaspina et al (2008) provide evidence that exposure to the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War in utero increased the likelihood of developing schizophrenia by age 30. 10 Thus, taken together, while credible causal evidence on the impact of early-life shocks on mental health is scant, existing evidence does suggest that we may expect mental health effects both in childhood and adulthood. Our analysis specifically focuses on three conditions: ADHD, anxiety, and depression.…”

Section: A Mental Health Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Though this design controls for time-invariant differences between mothers that might be correlated with stress, it cannot fully control for time-varying factors that might lead to variation in cortisol levels across pregnancies within the same mother 9. See online Appendix F for details 10. An important limitation of this empirical design is that it precludes the isolation of fetal exposure to stress from the other consequences of the war, such as its economic repercussions.11Tables 7, 8, and 12 in Socialstyrelsen (2013) show that depression and anxiety are the most prevalent conditions treated by pharmaceuticals for neurological conditions, after painkillers and sleeping pills.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation

Persson

Rossin‐Slater

2018

American Economic Review

237

191

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This paper studies how in utero exposure to maternal stress from family ruptures affects later mental health. We find that prenatal exposure to the death of a maternal relative increases take-up of ADHD medications during childhood and anti-anxiety and depression medications in adulthood. Further, family ruptures during pregnancy depress birth outcomes and raise the risk of perinatal complications necessitating hospitalization. Our results suggest large welfare gains from preventing fetal stress from family ruptures and possibly from economically induced stressors such as unemployment. They further suggest that greater stress exposure among the poor may partially explain the intergenerational persistence of poverty. (JEL I12, J12, J13)

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Section: A Mental Health Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation

Persson

Rossin‐Slater

2018

American Economic Review

237

191

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“…While the improvements can result from reduced work attendance due to antenatal leave, they can also be attributed to reduced stress due to certainty with respect to paid leave after giving birth, as exhibited in Rossin (2011) where increases solely in unpaid postnatal leave for U.S. mothers improved birth outcomes. Ahammer and Schneeweis (2020) find no effect of increased prenatal leave in Austria on birth outcomes. However, their policy change is an increase of prenatal leave from 6 to 8 weeks -a relatively minor change in comparison to changes from no prenatal leave to several weeks of reduced work attendance.…”

Section: Potential Mechanisms For the Effect Of Sirens On Birth Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 60%

Conflict, Rockets, and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from Israel's Operation Protective Edge

Lichtman-Sadot

Benshalom-Tirosh²,

Sheiner³

2020

SSRN Journal

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“…Several countries have mandatory prenatal leave to protect the health of pregnant workers and their unborn children. Ahammer et al (2020) study the e↵ects of a policy reform in Austria that extended the mandatory prenatal leave from 6 to 8 weeks on children's shortand long-run outcomes. They find that the reform had no influence on children's health outcomes in the short-or long-run, and no impact on their future labor market outcomes.…”

Section: Children's Health and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternity Leave and Paternity Leave: Evidence on the Economic Impact of Legislative Changes in High-Income Countries

Canaan¹,

Lassen²,

Rosenbaummat³

et al. 2022

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance

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Labor market policies for expecting and new mothers emerged at the turn of the 19th century. The main motivation for these policies was to ensure the health of mothers and their newborn children. With increased female labor market participation, the focus has gradually shifted to the effects that parental leave policies have on women’s labor market outcomes and gender equality. Proponents of extending parental leave rights for mothers in terms of duration, benefits, and job protection have argued that this will support mothers’ labor market attachment and allow them to take time off from work after childbirth and then safely return to their pre-birth jobs. Others have noted that extended maternity leave can work as a double-edged sword for mothers: If young women are likely to spend months, or even years, on leave, employers are likely to take that into consideration when hiring and promoting their employees. These policies may therefore end up adversely affecting women’s labor market outcomes. This has led to an increased focus on activating fathers to take parental leave, and in 2019, the European Parliament approved a directive requiring member states to ensure at least 2 months of earmarked paternity leave. The literature on parental leave has proliferated during the past two decades. The increased number of studies on the topic has brought forth some consistent findings. First, the introduction of short maternity leave is beneficial for both maternal and child health and for mothers’ labor market outcomes. Second, there appear to be negligible benefits from a leave extending beyond 6 months in terms of health outcomes and children’s long-term outcomes. Furthermore, longer leaves have little, or even adverse, influence on mothers’ labor market outcomes. However, evidence suggests that there may be underlying heterogeneous effects from extended leave among different socioeconomic groups. The literature on the effect of earmarked paternity leave indicates that these policies are effective in increasing fathers’ leave-taking and involvement in child care. However, the evidence on the influence of paternity leave on gender equality in the labor market remains scarce and is somewhat mixed. Finally, recent studies that focus on the effect of parental leave policies for firms find that in general, firms are able to compensate for lost labor when their employees go on leave. However, if firms face constraints when replacing employees, it could negatively influence their performance.

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The effect of prenatal maternity leave on short and long-term child outcomes

Cited by 25 publications

References 29 publications

Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation

Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation

Conflict, Rockets, and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from Israel's Operation Protective Edge

Maternity Leave and Paternity Leave: Evidence on the Economic Impact of Legislative Changes in High-Income Countries

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