Do we want daddy to stay at home? Paternity leave and child health

Abstract Maternal time investment is widely acknowledged as a critical determinant of child health, but fathers’ involvement is less understood. This paper identifies the effect of paternity leave on child health. To do so, it exploits the sequential implementation of Spanish paternity leave within a difference-in-discontinuities (RD-DD) design using health records. Results indicate an 11% lower likelihood of being diagnosed with bronchitis, along with almost 8% fewer diagnoses and 9% fewer infections, particularly respiratory infections. The effects on the number of diagnoses and infections are partly driven by specific reforms and are not fully robust to the exclusion of individual policy changes. Eligibility for one month and three months paternity leave led to almost one and a half fewer diagnoses and half an infection before age three. The number of diagnoses decreases significantly for children under one year of age and among children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. A shift from formal to parental care emerges as a potential mechanism, consistent with reduced exposure to environments where infections are likely to be spread. These findings provide policy insights into how family policies promoting parental involvement, potentially fathers’ involvement, can influence children’s environments and health.