A Flying Start? Long Term Consequences of Maternal Time Investments in Children During Their First Year of Life

By: Carneiro, Pedro (University College London)
Loken, Katrine V. (University of Bergen)
Salvanes, Kjell G. (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration)

 

URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5362&r=ltv
 

We study the impact on children of increasing the time that the mother spends with her child in the first year by exploiting a reform that increased paid and unpaid maternity leave in Norway. The reform increased maternal leave on average by 4 months and family income was unaffected. The increased time with the child led to a 2.7 percentage points decline in high school dropout. For mothers with low education we find a 5.2 percentage points decline. The effect is also especially large for children of mothers who, prior to the reform, would take very low levels of unpaid leave.

Keywords: adult outcomes, time with mother, maternity leave
JEL: J13

 

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