Using a quasi-natural experiment to identify the effects of birth-related leave policies on subjective well-being in Europe

The purpose of this paper is to examine the welfare effects of birth-related leave (BRL) in terms of life satisfaction. To do so, we exploit variations in BRL policies to assess their impact on life satisfaction. The paper adds to the existing literature in various ways. First, it uses new data collected by Baldi et al. (2011) and Baldi and Chapple (2010) to describe how life satisfaction moves around the date of the reforms over time and in a number of EU countries covered in the Eurobarometer surveys. Second, the paper analyses the relation between life satisfaction and BRL in Germany and the United Kingdom with long individual panel data collected with the GSOEP and the BHPS survey. The potential endogeneity bias of the treatment effect is addressed by building a quasi-natural experiment using policy changes as the assignment rule. The results from a variety of different methods suggest that BRL polices generally have a significant positive effect on life satisfaction. Women on BRL have higher life satisfaction, controlling for observable and unobservable personal characteristics. This result is robust to alternative specifications. JEL classification: H53, I16, J38 Keywords: Welfare, subjective well-being, difference-in-difference, birth-related leaves