Author(s)
Emma Tominey

Female labor supply can insure households against shocks to paternal employment. The paper estimates whether the female labor supply response to a paternal employment shock differs by eligibility to maternity employment protection. We exploit time-state variation in the implementation of unpaid maternity leave through the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in the US which increased employment protection from 0 to 12 weeks. We find that mothers eligible for FMLA speed up their return to work in response to a paternal shock, with a conditional probability of being in work 53% higher than in households with no paternal shock. In contrast, there was a negligible insurance response for mothers with no employment protection.  

JEL Codes
I30: Welfare and Poverty: General
J13: Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
J20: Demand and Supply of Labor: General
J64: Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
Keywords
female labor supply
insurance
maternity leave