When Dad Can Stay Home: Fathers' Workplace Flexibility and Maternal Health

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Persson, Petra; Rossin-Slater, Maya
• 署名单位: Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research; National Bureau of Economic Research; Stanford University; IZA Institute Labor Economics
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20220400
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 186-219
• 关键词: work-family conflict; Regression discontinuity designs; well-being evidence; parental leave; paternity leave; UNITED-STATES; economic consequences; depressive symptoms; MENTAL-HEALTH; Child-care

摘要

We study how fathers' access to workplace flexibility affects maternal postpartum health. We use variation from a Swedish reform that granted new fathers more flexibility to take intermittent parental leave during the postpartum period and show that increasing the father's temporal flexibility-and thereby his ability to be present at home together with the mother-reduces the incidence of maternal postpartum health complications. Our results suggest that mothers bear part of the burden from a lack of workplace flexibility for men because a father's inability to respond to domestic shocks exacerbates the maternal health cost of childbearing. ( JEL D13, I12, J13, J16, J22, J32, M54)