Parental leave and health

Father’s Quota and Maternal Mental Health Tapio Räsänen, Anneli Miettinen, Miia Saarikallio-Torp

Abstract

A non-transferable, independent parental leave quota for fathers is one of the most effective ways to increase fathers’ use of parental leave. In this paper, we use a policy reform in the Finnish parental leave scheme in 2013, which eased the conditions of father’s quota and increased fathers’ parental leave-taking, to identify a causal effect of fathers’ participation on mothers’ mental health. Using register data and regression discontinuity design, we find that father’s quota positively impacts maternal mental health and the decrease in antidepressant use is the strongest when the child is under 3 years old.

Pre-print working paper available in SSRN