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Family leave policy and child mortality: Evidence from 19 OECD countries from 1969 to 2010
Author(s) -
Shim Joyce
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of social welfare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1468-2397
pISSN - 1369-6866
DOI - 10.1111/ijsw.12186
Subject(s) - per capita , demography , demographic economics , fixed effects model , economics , infant mortality , panel data , geography , developing country , economic growth , population , sociology , econometrics
This study examined the effects of family leave policy on five age‐specific child mortality rates across 19 Organization for Economic C o‐operation and Development countries from 1969 to 2010. I used the dataset developed by R uhm and T anaka and extended it with data from various institutions, including the M ax P lanck I nstitute for D emographic R esearch. I controlled for six relevant variables including GDP per capita and health expenditures, three child health indicators, as well as three social expenditure measures for families. I included in all models country and year fixed effects as well as country‐time trend interactions. Throughout all model specifications, the results indicated that job‐protected paid leave significantly reduces infant mortality (death at less than 1 year of age) and postneonatal mortality (death between 1 month and 1 year of age). Other leave (unpaid or nonjob protected) had no significant effects on any of the outcome indicators.