Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/236509 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14478
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Motherhood and parental leave interrupt employment relationships, likely imposing costs on firms. We document that mothers who are difficult to replace internally take shorter leave and that their firms hire replacements more often. Introducing more generous parental leave benefits erases the link between mothers' internal replaceability and their leave duration. In firms with few internal substitutes this reduces employment in the short-, but not longer-term. Firms respond by hiring fewer women of childbearing age into occupations where they are difficult to replace internally. Taken together, motherhood and generous parental leave policies burden firms that have few internal substitutes available.
Subjects: 
parental leave
worker absences
firm-specific human capital
substitution
statistical discrimination
JEL: 
J16
J18
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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