Biography: Steven Stillman received his PhD in Economics from the University of Washington in 2000. Prior to moving to Italy in 2016, he was a Professor of Economics at the University of Otago in New Zealand. His research focuses on empirical labour economics, specialising in the behaviour of individuals and households, and the interplay between government policy and human behavior. He has done extensive work examining the impact of migration on immigrants and their families exploiting a lottery used to allocate migrant quota slots. In recent work, he has also examined voting behavior along a number of dimensions and how individuals have responded to changes in a number of policies, including minimum wages, the drinking age and doctor’s fees.

Learning About Leave: Peer Influences in Maternal Leave Decisions

Abstract: We examine how the parental leave decisions of mothers are influenced by parental leave decisions made by their work colleagues (peers) using income tax data on the universe of women who gave birth in New Zealand between 2002 and 2018. Maternal leave in New Zealand replaces 100% of mothers’ income up to a fairly low maximum. We use this maximum threshold to implement a regression kink design, estimating the causal impact of peer leave decisions on mothers’ own leave decisions. We find that for every week that peers shorten their maternity leave in response to this threshold, mothers reduce their own leave by 0.5 to 0.6 weeks. This effect is larger in smaller firms and in situations where the peer is more likely to influence the decision of the study mother.

A recording of Dr. Stillman’s presentation may be accessed here.