Data and Code for: The Long-Run Effects of Taking Up Paid Leave on Women’s Careers: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design and U.S. Tax Data

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Martha Bailey, University of California-Los Angeles; Tanya Byker, Middlebury College; Elena Patel, University of Utah ; Shanthi Ramnath, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Version: View help for Version V3

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
data			11/03/2025 03:19:PM
dofiles			11/03/2025 03:23:PM
output			11/03/2025 03:24:PM
README.pdf	application/pdf	253 KB	11/04/2025 05:15:AM

Project Citation:

Bailey, Martha , Byker, Tanya, Patel, Elena, and Ramnath, Shanthi. Data and Code for: The Long-Run Effects of Taking Up Paid Leave on Women’s Careers: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design and U.S. Tax Data. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-11-04. https://doi.org/10.3886/E195866V3

Project Description

Summary:

We use administrative tax data to analyze the cumulative, long-run effects of California’s 2004 Paid Family Leave Act (CPFL) on women’s employment, earnings, and childbearing. A regression-discontinuity design exploits the sharp increase in the weeks of paid leave available under the law. We find no evidence that CPFL increased employment, boosted earnings, or encouraged childbearing, suggesting that CPFL had little effect on the gender pay gap or child penalty. For first-time mothers, we find that CPFL reduced employment and earnings roughly a decade after they gave birth.

Funding Sources: National Science Foundation (SMA 1757063); Washington Center for Equitable Growth; United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32 HD0007339); Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan (P2C HD041028); California Center for Population Research at UCLA (P2C HD041022)

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      J08 Labor Economics Policies
      J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
      J71 Labor Discrimination

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Published Versions

V3 [2025-11-04]

V2 [2025-04-29]

V1 [2024-01-04]

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