‘Does maternity leave encourage higher birth rates? An analysis of the Australian labour force’

This paper uses data from the 2003 HILDA Survey to assess the impact of maternity
leave on the incidence of pregnancy among Australian women. The empirical analysis
accounts for the fact that data on maternity leave is unobserved for non-working women
and applies a Heckprobit selection model to control for potential sample selection
bias. The analysis finds that the availability of maternity leave can significantly elevate
pregnancy rates but this effect depends on a woman’s age and whether maternity leave
is paid or unpaid. The findings imply that the implementation of national paid maternity
leave legislation in Australia would work to encourage women to bring forward the
timing of childbirths and help ease the economic pressures of the ageing population