Parental Leave, (In)formal Childcare, and Long-Term Child Outcomes
利用奥地利育儿假从孩子一岁延长至两岁的政策改革，研究发现延长育儿假平均改善了儿童健康，但对劳动力市场结果无影响；当考虑替代的照护方式时，对原本可能由非正式照护替代为母亲照护的儿童，所有结果均有显著改善。
We evaluate the effect of an Austrian parental leave extension from the child's first to its second birthday on long-term child outcomes. Exploiting a sharp birthday cutoff-based discontinuity in the eligibility for extended leave, we find that longer parental leave improves on average child health outcomes, but has no effect on the child's labor market outcomes. When accounting for the counterfactual mode of care, we find significant gains in all outcomes for children for whom the reform most likely induced a replacement of informal childcare with maternal care. This highlights the importance of the counterfactual scenario in such evaluations.