Family leave policies and women's retention after childbirth: Evidence from the United States, Britain, and Japan

This paper uses labour force survey data to examine the employment rates an d employment decisions of women with young children in the United States, B ritain and Japan. Our results confirm that young children have a very stron g negative effect on women's employment; this effect is most pronounced in Britain. We then take advantage of panel data to investigate the effects of family leave coverage on women's job retention after childbirth. We find:t hat family leave coverage increases the likelihood that a woman will return to her employer after childbirth in all three countries, with a particular ly-marked effect in Japan. This result suggests that the recent expansions in family leave coverage in the sample countries are likely to lead to incr eased employment of women after childbirth. JEL classification: J16, J18, J 2.