Maternity leave and effects on fertility and mother’s labour

In this paper we use a rich population based register data set for Norway to identify effects on fertility by exploiting eight different reforms in paid and unpaid maternity leave. We use a non-parametric regression discontinuity design comparing mother’s giving birth before and after the reforms. Unlike previous studies we can narrow down the treatment group to those who were eligible for the reform and to the compliers. We find that the multiple reforms in the maternity leave have a small positive effect on higher order fertility. The 1977 reform show that mothers have their next child about 1-2 months earlier and we see a slightly positive effect on completed family size. The other reforms (1987-1993) also show that mothers tend to have children earlier post-reform than pre-reform however unlike the 1977 reform we do not see any effect on completed family size. We link the results to the fact that mothers take more paid leave after the reforms and hence having a better experience with the first child might increase the likelihood of having more children. The introduction of more paid leave meant more time – less stress for mothers in the first months after giving birth.