Employer Responses to Family Leave Programs
利用瑞典三个月育儿假扩大的外生变化，研究发现企业为应对员工休假需承担相当于10个全职月工资的调整成本，且成本因内部替代可用性而异。
Search frictions make worker turnover costly to firms. A three-month parental leave expansion in Sweden provides exogenous variation that we use to quantify firms’ adjustment costs upon worker absence. The reform increased women’s leave duration and likelihood of separating from pre-birth employers. Firms with greater exposure to the reform hired additional workers and increased coworkers to make it coworkers’ hours, incurring wage costs corresponding to 10 full-time equivalent months in addition to replacing the workers. These adjustment costs varied by firms’ availability of internal substitutes. We also analyze a daddy-month reform and find similar employer responses to male workers’ leave, albeit smaller in magnitude.