Parental leave and child health

This study investigates whether rights to parental leave improve pediatric health. Aggregate data are used for 16 European countries over the 1969 thr ough 1994 period. More generous paid leave is found to reduce deaths of inf ants and young children. The magnitudes of the estimated effects are substa ntial, especially where a causal effect of leave is most plausible. In part icular, there is a much stronger negative relationship between leave durati ons and post-neonatal or child fatalities than for perinatal mortality, neo natal deaths, or low birth weight. The evidence further suggests that paren tal leave may be a cost-effective method of bettering child health. (C) 200 0 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: I12; I18; J38.