Paid Family Leave, Fathers’ Leave-Taking, and Leave-Sharing in Dual-Earner Households

• Main Authors: Bartel, A.P (Author), Rossin-Slater, M. (Author), Ruhm, C.J (Author), Stearns, J. (Author), Waldfogel, J. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley-Liss Inc. 2018
• Subjects: birth order; Birth Order; California; family leave; Family Leave; father; Fathers; female; Female; forecasting; Forecasting; human; Humans; income; Income; male; Male; mother; Mothers; statistics and numerical data; trends
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher
• ISBN: 02768739 (ISSN)
• DOI: 10.1002/pam.22030

Using difference-in-difference and difference-in-difference-in-difference designs, we study California's Paid Family Leave (CA-PFL) program, the first source of government-provided paid parental leave available to fathers in the Unites States. Relative to the pre-treatment mean, fathers of infants in California are 46 percent more likely to be on leave when CA-PFL is available. In households where both parents work, we find suggestive evidence that CA-PFL increases both father-only leave-taking (i.e., father on leave while mother is at work) and joint leave-taking (i.e., both parents on leave at the same time). Effects are larger for fathers of first-born children than for fathers of later-born children. © 2017 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management