The impacts of paid family leave benefits: regression kink Evidence from california administrative data

We use ten years of California administrative data with a regression kink design to estimate the causal impacts of benefits in the first state-level paid family leave program for women with earnings near the maximum benefit threshold. We find no evidence that a higher weekly benefit amount (WBA) increases leave duration or leads to adverse future labor market outcomes for this group. In contrast, we document that a rise in the WBA leads to a small increase in employment one to two years after leave and a sizeable increase in the likelihood of making a future paid family leave claim.