Parental Leave May Cut Infant Mortality Rate.

• Position: Brief Article

Parental leave, which entitles a mother and, sometimes, a father to stay home with a new baby for an extended period of time, appears to lower the mortality rate for infants in their first year of life, according to a study by Christopher J. Ruhm, the Jefferson-Pilot Excellence Professor in the Department of Economics, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After examining records in nine Western European nations over 25 years, he estimates that rights to a year of parental leave may reduce national mortality rates between 20 and 29% during that period, with smaller reductions associated with shorter leave periods.

Ruhm's study examined aggregate population data in Denmark, Finland, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, and Sweden. All parental leaves were paid and the wage replacement amounts ranged in 1994 from a low of 53% in Italy to 100% in Norway. The length ranged from a minimum period of 14 weeks in Ireland to 64 weeks in Sweden. All nine countries have been providing job-protected leave since 1983. The average was 25.6 weeks of paid parental leave, and the wage replacement rate was 79.6%. In 1969, just four of the countries had paid parental leave. By 1984, it had been enacted in all of them.

Ruhm indicates that the post-neonatal period, from the 28th day after birth through the first year, is the most important time examined in his study. Most maternity leave begins a few weeks before...