How does job-protected maternity leave affect mothers’ employment?

Aperçu

Résumé (français)

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Résumé (anglais)

To affect mother and infant welfare, maternity leaves must first affect the amount of time working women stay at home post-birth. We provide new evidence of the labor supply effects of these leaves from an analysis of the introduction and expansion of job-protected maternity leave in Canada. We find that modest mandates of 17-18 weeks do not increase the time mothers spend at home, but simply recast it from being not employed to on leave. In contrast, we find that longer leaves do have a substantive impact on behavior, leading to more time spent at home. We also find that all leaves increase job continuity with the pre-birth employer.