The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Women’s Employment : Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data from Developing Countries
The relationship between paid maternity leave and the share of female workers in registered private firms is analyzed using firm-level survey data for 111 developing and emerging countries. Theoretically, the relationship can be either positive or negative. Higher maternity leave raises the cost of female workers to the employer, discouraging female employment. However, higher maternity leave encourages more females to enter the labor market, implying greater female employment. The results show that the latter effect dominates. That is, a positive, large, and statistically significant relationship is found between maternity leave and female employment. A conservative baseline estimate is that the share of female workers in a firm increases by 2.08 percentage points for each log point increase in the number of days of paid maternity leave. Alternatively, an increase in the number of days of paid maternity leave from its smallest to highest value (0 to 410 days) increases the share of female workers by 12.5 percentage points. The positive relationship between female workers and maternity leave is much larger when maternity leave is fully funded by the government than when paid for by the employer, and in countries where there is a higher share of females in the childbearing age group of 20–29 years. These heterogeneities highlight channels that accentuate the relationship, thereby serving as checks against endogeneity concerns with the estimation. The distributional implications of paid maternity leave are also analyzed by estimating its impact on low-skilled versus high-skilled employment. Important policy implications of the findings are discussed.
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Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
Language: | English English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2022-09
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Subjects: | EMPLOYER-PAID MATERNITY LEAVE, GOVERNMENT MATERNITY LEAVE, WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT, GENDER LAW, LABOR MARKET, WOMEN’S LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION, POST-MATERNITY WORK INCENTIVE, FAMILY LEAVE, LOW-SKILL WORKERS LEAVE POLICY, |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099624009192215952/IDU0613dc8520b06604bc709b9604eb61253bea6 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/38038 |
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dig-okr-10986380382022-09-21T05:10:36Z The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Women’s Employment : Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data from Developing Countries Amin, Mohammad Islam, Asif M. EMPLOYER-PAID MATERNITY LEAVE GOVERNMENT MATERNITY LEAVE WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT GENDER LAW LABOR MARKET WOMEN’S LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION POST-MATERNITY WORK INCENTIVE FAMILY LEAVE LOW-SKILL WORKERS LEAVE POLICY The relationship between paid maternity leave and the share of female workers in registered private firms is analyzed using firm-level survey data for 111 developing and emerging countries. Theoretically, the relationship can be either positive or negative. Higher maternity leave raises the cost of female workers to the employer, discouraging female employment. However, higher maternity leave encourages more females to enter the labor market, implying greater female employment. The results show that the latter effect dominates. That is, a positive, large, and statistically significant relationship is found between maternity leave and female employment. A conservative baseline estimate is that the share of female workers in a firm increases by 2.08 percentage points for each log point increase in the number of days of paid maternity leave. Alternatively, an increase in the number of days of paid maternity leave from its smallest to highest value (0 to 410 days) increases the share of female workers by 12.5 percentage points. The positive relationship between female workers and maternity leave is much larger when maternity leave is fully funded by the government than when paid for by the employer, and in countries where there is a higher share of females in the childbearing age group of 20–29 years. These heterogeneities highlight channels that accentuate the relationship, thereby serving as checks against endogeneity concerns with the estimation. The distributional implications of paid maternity leave are also analyzed by estimating its impact on low-skilled versus high-skilled employment. Important policy implications of the findings are discussed. 2022-09-20T18:44:58Z 2022-09-20T18:44:58Z 2022-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099624009192215952/IDU0613dc8520b06604bc709b9604eb61253bea6 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/38038 English en Policy Research Working Papers;10188 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research |
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EMPLOYER-PAID MATERNITY LEAVE GOVERNMENT MATERNITY LEAVE WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT GENDER LAW LABOR MARKET WOMEN’S LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION POST-MATERNITY WORK INCENTIVE FAMILY LEAVE LOW-SKILL WORKERS LEAVE POLICY EMPLOYER-PAID MATERNITY LEAVE GOVERNMENT MATERNITY LEAVE WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT GENDER LAW LABOR MARKET WOMEN’S LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION POST-MATERNITY WORK INCENTIVE FAMILY LEAVE LOW-SKILL WORKERS LEAVE POLICY |
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EMPLOYER-PAID MATERNITY LEAVE GOVERNMENT MATERNITY LEAVE WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT GENDER LAW LABOR MARKET WOMEN’S LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION POST-MATERNITY WORK INCENTIVE FAMILY LEAVE LOW-SKILL WORKERS LEAVE POLICY EMPLOYER-PAID MATERNITY LEAVE GOVERNMENT MATERNITY LEAVE WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT GENDER LAW LABOR MARKET WOMEN’S LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION POST-MATERNITY WORK INCENTIVE FAMILY LEAVE LOW-SKILL WORKERS LEAVE POLICY Amin, Mohammad Islam, Asif M. The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Women’s Employment : Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data from Developing Countries |
description |
The relationship between paid
maternity leave and the share of female workers in
registered private firms is analyzed using firm-level survey
data for 111 developing and emerging countries.
Theoretically, the relationship can be either positive or
negative. Higher maternity leave raises the cost of female
workers to the employer, discouraging female employment.
However, higher maternity leave encourages more females to
enter the labor market, implying greater female employment.
The results show that the latter effect dominates. That is,
a positive, large, and statistically significant
relationship is found between maternity leave and female
employment. A conservative baseline estimate is that the
share of female workers in a firm increases by 2.08
percentage points for each log point increase in the number
of days of paid maternity leave. Alternatively, an increase
in the number of days of paid maternity leave from its
smallest to highest value (0 to 410 days) increases the
share of female workers by 12.5 percentage points. The
positive relationship between female workers and maternity
leave is much larger when maternity leave is fully funded by
the government than when paid for by the employer, and in
countries where there is a higher share of females in the
childbearing age group of 20–29 years. These heterogeneities
highlight channels that accentuate the relationship, thereby
serving as checks against endogeneity concerns with the
estimation. The distributional implications of paid
maternity leave are also analyzed by estimating its impact
on low-skilled versus high-skilled employment. Important
policy implications of the findings are discussed. |
format |
Working Paper |
topic_facet |
EMPLOYER-PAID MATERNITY LEAVE GOVERNMENT MATERNITY LEAVE WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT GENDER LAW LABOR MARKET WOMEN’S LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION POST-MATERNITY WORK INCENTIVE FAMILY LEAVE LOW-SKILL WORKERS LEAVE POLICY |
author |
Amin, Mohammad Islam, Asif M. |
author_facet |
Amin, Mohammad Islam, Asif M. |
author_sort |
Amin, Mohammad |
title |
The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Women’s Employment : Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data from Developing Countries |
title_short |
The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Women’s Employment : Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data from Developing Countries |
title_full |
The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Women’s Employment : Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data from Developing Countries |
title_fullStr |
The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Women’s Employment : Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data from Developing Countries |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Women’s Employment : Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data from Developing Countries |
title_sort |
impact of paid maternity leave on women’s employment : evidence using firm-level survey data from developing countries |
publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
publishDate |
2022-09 |
url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099624009192215952/IDU0613dc8520b06604bc709b9604eb61253bea6 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/38038 |
work_keys_str_mv |
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1756576187083128832 |