Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper is a policy analysis research regarding the casual impact of the Paid Family Leave (PFL) of California which was enacted in 2004 on timing of the first births, infant health outcomes and labor market outcomes of mothers after first births. First, using a Difference in Difference (DID) design, this study examines whether PFL of California was successful in reducing maternal age at first births by encouraging women to have their first child earlier. Results show that PFL by providing income security and maternity leave was successful in encouraging women over 35 years old to have their first child 1.7 years earlier and consequently was successful in combating birth delay. The negative causal impact of the PFL of California on maternal age at first births for women in delayed childbearing age (over 35 years) intrigued the investigation of this policy on infant health outcomes.

Medical literature has well established that higher maternal age at first birth is associated with an increased risk of poor pregnancy outcomes. First births to women aged 35 and over has been associated with an increased likelihood of infertility, miscarriage, spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, medical risks, operative delivery, low birth weight, and pregnancy complications (Johonson and Tough, 2012; NCHS, 2014; Cnattingius et al., 1993; Guendelman et al., 2014). I find that this policy improves infant health outcomes of women at delayed childbearing by reducing premature (< 37 weeks of gestation) and low birth weights (<2500 g) respectively 4 and 11 percentage points. The Literature on female labor force participation shows that women especially with higher age at first births, reveal more absenteeism from work and reduction in hours worked (Herr, 2008; Buckles 2008; Cristia 2008; Waldfogel, 1997; Waldfogel, 1998; Budig and England, 2001; Loughren and Zissimopolus, 2008; Anderson et al., 2002). In this sense, I finally investigate the impact of the PFL of California on labor market outcomes including employment, weeks of work and hours of work per week for women over 35 years old. Results show that the PFL policy of California improves labor market attachment of new mothers over 35 years old by increasing 6 percent in likelihood of employment after child birth. This result is important, because it shows that California maternity leave policy reduces the speed of human capital depreciation of these mothers after childbirth by increasing attachment to the labor force. The results are robust to a wide range of controls and robustness checks.