Firm and Worker Responses to Extensions in Paid Maternity Leave
研究巴西政府资助的带薪产假从4个月延长至6个月的自愿计划，发现高收入、高生产率企业更可能提供延长假，但仅35%的合格工人参与，且产假延长对母亲长期劳动市场结果无影响。
This paper investigates how firms and workers respond to a voluntary government-funded program increasing the duration of paid maternity leave from four to six months in Brazil. We show that larger, higher-paying, and more productive firms are more likely to provide extended leaves to workers. Exploiting the gradual implementation of extended leave across firms and the exact time of leave-taking, we present four key findings. First, we find an incomplete take-up of 35 percent among eligible workers, largely driven by those with high socioeconomic status. Second, firms and workers strategically defer job separations to extract rents from the government. Third, extended leave has no long-term impact on maternal labor market outcomes. Fourth, job security and information transmission about leave extensions boost take-up and reduce deferred job separations. The results illustrate that distributional concerns can justify the mandated provision of extensions in paid maternity leave.