Demography article: Parental Leave: The Impact of Recent Legislation on Parent’s Leave Taking The data, the methods, the techniques of analysis (or: What I learned in Demography class)
The article: � Authors Han and Waldfogel wanted to “examine the impact of leave entitlements on unpaid leave usage by men and women after the birth of a child” � Focus years: 1991-1999 � Results: • Men—leave usage unaffected • Women—mixed results
The Dataset: Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) • Objective of survey: “to provide accurate and comprehensive information about the income and program participation of individuals and households in the U.S.” • Purpose: “to collect source and amount of income, labor force information, program participation and eligibility data… to measure the effectiveness of existing federal, state, and local programs” • Survey size: “continuous series of national panels” • Sample size: 14,000 to 36,700 interviewed households • Duration of panels: 2 ½ to 4 years • Respondents: 15 years old and over, self-response • Sponsoring agency: Census Bureau • Periodicity: continuing with monthly interviewing
Sample size & qualifiers for this study: � Women—3,803 � Men------4,574 � Additionally: • Men and women who had child during course of panel • Were employed 3 months before birth • Were able to be followed for 3 months after birth
Tools and Techniques: Dependent variable: parental leave � Key Independent variable: # of weeks of job � protected leave provided by law Descriptive analyses � Estimated series of regression models � • # of leave weeks divided by 100 to estimate coefficients 2 Methods � 1. Size and type of firm 2. Size and type of firm + working hours Note: To check sensitivity—researchers re- estimated all models, treating women as ‘uncovered’ or having no paid leave coverage
Limitations of SIPP � Researchers noted that there are limitations with this dataset: • Does not identify all states uniquely • Yet states do have differing laws about leave-taking • Thus, researchers dropped cases from states during years where laws differed • These states are: AK, ID, IA, MT
Advantages of SIPP � The advantages outweigh the disadvantages: • Nationally representative sample • Tracks the labor force participation of BOTH mothers AND fathers BOTH before and AFTER births
Figure 1: Parental-Leave Coverage of Recent Mothers and Fathers, 1991-1999 � Methods 1 & 2
Tables 1 & 2 � Leave taking and Leave lengths Women Men
Detailed information about tools used Regression based models used � Researchers estimated 2 sets of � models using 1. ordinary least squares 2. Added dummy variables for state Controls: mother’s age, education, • racial/ ethnic groups, married, # of children
The End……
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