TY  - JOUR
AU  - Baker,Michael
AU  - Milligan,Kevin
TI  - Evidence From Maternity Leave Expansions of the Impact of Maternal Care on Early Child Development
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13826
PY  - 2008
Y2  - February 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13826
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13826.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Michael Baker
Department of Economics
University of Toronto
150 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G7  CANADA
Tel: 416/978-4138
Fax: 416/978-6713
E-Mail: baker@chass.utoronto.ca

Kevin S. Milligan
Department of Economics
University of British Columbia
#997-1873 East Mall
Vancouver, B.C.
CANADA  V6T1Z1
Tel: 604/822-6747
Fax: 604/822-5915
E-Mail: kevin.milligan@ubc.ca
AB  - We study the impact of maternal care on early child development using an expansion in Canadian maternity leave entitlements.  Following the leave expansion, mothers who took leave spent between 48 and 58 percent more time not working in the first year of their children's lives. We find that this extra maternal care primarily crowded out home-based care by unlicensed non-relatives, and replaced mostly full-time work. However, the estimates suggest a weak impact of the increase in maternal care on indicators of child development. Measures of family environment and motor-social development showed changes very close to zero. Some improvements in temperament were observed but occurred both for treated and untreated children.
ER  -