Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/174016 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11106
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
How do parental resources early in life affect children's health and schooling outcomes? We address this question by exploiting the so-called speed premium (SP) in the Swedish parental leave (PL) system. The SP grants mothers higher PL benefits for the subsequent child without the need to re-quality for benefits through pre-birth market work, if the two births occur within a pre-specified interval. The eligibility birth interval for this automatic renewal of PL benefits was set to 24 months in 1980–1985, and to 30 months since 1986. This allow us to use a Regression Discontinuity framework to study how additional parental time and monetary resources impacts both the existing and new child's educational and health outcomes. We find that maternal eligibility to the SP increases the 9th grade GPA, and the likelihood of college attendance of the first-born child, but it does not affect the secondborn. These impacts can be generalized for higher-order parities. The effects are prevalent primarily among children to high-income mothers. Impacts are driven by a combination of a persistent positive income shock, and substitution away from informal care to maternal time.
Subjects: 
time investments
earnings
parental leave
child outcomes
JEL: 
J13
J22
J18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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