Labor Supply Effects of State Maternity Leave Legislation

Jacob Alex Klerman, Arleen Leibowitz

ResearchPublished 1998

This paper develops a theory of the labor supply effects of maternity leaves statutes. The theory predicts that both employment and leave will increase with the passage of maternity leave legislation, but the direction of the legislation's effect on work is ambiguous. The authors test these hypotheses using data from the 1980 and 1990 censuses. The results are sensitive to the controls for state and year effects and the controls for the characteristics of sampled women. The estimate provides some evidence that maternity leave statutes increased leave, but had insignificant positive effects on employment and work.

Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web Only
  • Year: 1998
  • Pages: 27
  • Document Number: RP-715

Originally published in: Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace, Francine D. Blau and Ronald G. Ehrenberg, eds., pp. 65-91.

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Version Note

This publication supersedes a previous version published in 1995 (DRU-1260-NICHD).