Can Maternity Benefits Have Long-Term Effects on Childbearing? Evidence from Soviet Russia

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Malkova, Olga
• 署名单位: University of Kentucky
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00713
• 发表日期: 2018-07
• 页码: 691-703
• 关键词: affect fertility; expansions; incentives; earnings; HEALTH

摘要

This paper quantifies the effects of Russia's 1981 expansion in maternity benefits on completed childbearing. The program provided one year of partially paid parental leave and a small cash transfer upon a child's birth. I exploit the program's two-stage implementation and find evidence that women had more children as a result of the program. Fertility rates rose immediately by 8.2% over twelve months. The increase in fertility rates not only persisted for the ten-year duration of the program, but it reflected large increases in higher-order births to older women who already had children before the program started.