Women, work and childbearing

The growing work-family literature provides extensive workplace level evidence of positive relationships between working-time flexibility policies and practices and work and family outcomes. Yet, little is known about the role of flexible policies and practices in the labor market as a whole or with respect to behavioral rather than psychological outcomes. This dissertation investigates relationships between availability of paid and unpaid leave and expected and actual childbearing, maternal employment and early investments in child health through well-baby care.;In Chapter 1, I provide a broad, cohort level analysis of birth expectations. Birth expectations may foreshadow future fertility and shape current behaviors, including early career and educational choices. Chapter 1 evaluates these two possibilities. Findings indicate women do not anticipate their future childbearing very well. Also, the marked differences in occupational characteristics between mothers and non-mothers, which are well known in the literature and apparent in my analysis, indicate many women do eventually sort into more "family friendly occupations". Yet, my findings imply sorting occurs after childbearing rather than before.;Chapter 2 extends the findings in Chapter 1 by examining relationships between availability of paid and unpaid leave in the pre-birth job and other job characteristics and mothers' decisions to maintain or quit those jobs. I examine all quits from one year prior to pregnancy through 1.5 years following the birth and distinguish between quits to leave the labor force and quits to start a new job. Findings indicate most labor force exits are concentrated in the three months either side of the birth. Most job changing happens just before and during early pregnancy and would be missed in a shorter analysis interval. Women eligible for FMLA leave are less likely to quit their jobs for any reason prior to the birth and those who work part-time are less likely to change jobs before the birth. I do find women without paid vacation are more likely to change jobs prior to the birth but overall the evidence of pre-birth sorting into jobs with paid leave is not very compelling.;Chapter 3 also examines the effect of paid and unpaid leave on mother's behavior, but in this chapter my focus shifts from employment decisions to child outcomes. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends children receive eight well-baby visits at regular intervals over the first two years of life. I estimate the average baby receives just over 2. Cost sharing for well-baby care under public and private insurance is very low. The fact that compliance rates are so low despite the low cost of care suggests other factors, such as time constraints, may be especially important. In general my findings imply the type of job a mother holds matters; paid and unpaid leave may enable mothers in certain types of jobs to take their babies to the doctor but in others they appear to have no relationship or even a negative relationship with well-baby care use.;In total, the results of this dissertation suggest access to paid leave may help women to maintain job matches during childbearing years and improve health outcomes for young children by encouraging mothers to take their children to well-baby care. Yet, the extent to which paid and unpaid leave influence outcomes of interest may depend on the context of the job. Furthermore, despite the potential benefits of paid leave, I find little evidence to suggest women actively seek jobs with paid leave before they have a child.