Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance
Fisher College of Business Working Paper No. 2019-03-029
Charles A. Dice Center Working Paper No. 2019-29
European Corporate Governance Institute – Finance Working Paper No. 643/2019
80 Pages Posted: 22 Nov 2019 Last revised: 30 Mar 2023
There are 2 versions of this paper
Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance
Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance
Date Written: November 14, 2022
Abstract
Using the staggered adoption of US state-level Paid Family Leave (PFL) acts, we find that lowering labor market frictions for female workers leads to reduced employee turnover and profitability gains for private and publicly-traded firms. Relying on recent advances in econometric theory of staggered difference-in-differences analysis, we ensure this finding holds when correcting for the bias arising from staggered adoption. Following the introduction of state-level PFL, productivity increases by about 5% in treated establishments, relative to control establishments in adjacent counties on the other side of the state border. We document heterogeneous treatment effects consistent with our identity-based framework.
Keywords: Paid Family Leave, Labor Force Participation, Gender, Diversity, Talent Allocation, Firm Performance
JEL Classification: J16, J22, J24, J32, J78, M14, M51
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation