Maternal employment, breastfeeding, and health
Subtitle: evidence from maternity leave mandates
By: Michael Baker, Kevin S. Milligan.
Contributors: Milligan, Kevin.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- no. 13188.; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research) -- working paper no. 13188.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 46
Subjects: Maternity leave -- Economic aspects; Maternity leave -- Government policy -- Canada; Breastfeeding -- Econometric models; Infants -- Health and hygiene -- Economic aspects
Description: "Public health agencies around the world have renewed efforts to increase the incidence and duration of breastfeeding. Maternity leave mandates present an economic policy that could help achieve these goals. We study their efficacy focusing on a significant increase in maternity leave mandates in Canada. We find very large increases in mothers' time away from work post-birth and in the attainment of critical breastfeeding duration thresholds. However, we find little impact on the self-reported indicators of maternal and child health captured in our data."--abstract.
Notes: "June 2007"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-33).

Also available in PDF from the NBER World Wide Web site (www.nber.org).