Evans Seminar: Pelletier on the Effects of WA’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Policy on Maternal Employment (1/31/24)
Posted: 1/25/2024 (Local Events)
CSDE Trainee Elizabeth Pelletier (Evans School of Public Policy & Governance) will present her research at the Evans School seminar on Wednesday, Jan. 31st from 11:30-12:30PM in 360 Parrington Hall. Pelletier’s talk is titled “The Effects of Washington’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Policy on Maternal Employment”.
Abstract: Parents often experience unstable employment and volatile earnings around the time a child is born. Consequently, household income frequently falls at precisely the time families need increased resources to support a new child’s needs. Paid leave has emerged as a potentially promising way to smooth employment disruptions, support caregiving, and reduce inequalities by allowing more parents to afford time off. This paper studies the use and effects of a new Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) policy in Washington state among a key population of interest: mothers of newborns. Pelletier describes use of the policy in its first few years, examining what share of eligible mothers claimed PFML and how these take-up rates varied across demographic and employment characteristics and over time as the policy rolled out. Next, she uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal effect of PFML on mothers’ employment trajectories, leveraging the policy’s discontinuous eligibility cutoff to compare outcomes among mothers whose work histories place them right above and below the cutoff. Pelletier estimates the effects of PFML on employment status, earnings and hours levels and volatility, and employer continuity among mothers around a birth. This is a practice job talk session and your attendance and valuable, constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Date: 01/31/2024
Time: 11:30-12:30PM
Location: 360 Parrington Hall