Paid family leave and parental investments in infant health: Evidence from California

This paper evaluates the effect of Paid Family Leave (PFL) on breastfeeding and immunizations- two critical parental investments in infant health - which we identify using California's 2004 PFL policy that ensured mothers up to six weeks of leave at a 55% wage replacement rate. We employ difference-in-difference and difference-in-difference-in-differences models for a large, representative sample of children (N = 314,532) born between 2000 and 2013 drawn from the restricted-use versions of the 2003-2014 National Immunization Sur-veys. Our most conservative estimates indicate that access to PFL is associated with at least a 15% increase in breastfeeding exclusively for at least six months. We find substantially large effects for disadvantaged mothers, adding to the existing evidence that access to state-sanctioned paid family leave might benefit children overall and disadvantaged children in particular.