Infections, especially respiratory ones, are less frequent in children when their fathers have access to longer paternity leave. It was previously known that broad paternity leave policies alter family organization and increase fathers' involvement in childcare, with limited effects on employment. Similarly, the role of maternal presence in child health has been extensively studied, but paternal involvement has been less analyzed.
A group of researchers from the ULPGC has conducted a study investigating the impact of paternity leave on the health of minors. They analyzed administrative primary care records to assess the health of children born before and after regulatory changes in 2017 and 2021. Their conclusions indicate that access to paternity leave is associated with an 11% reduction in the probability of being diagnosed with bronchitis, nearly 8% fewer diagnoses, and 9% fewer infections, particularly respiratory ones.
The effects are clearer when the leave duration reaches one to three months, during the baby's first year of life, and these effects extend up to three years. These benefits are more pronounced in households with lower socioeconomic status.
Evidence suggests that one of the mechanisms explaining these findings could be the partial substitution of formal care (provided by professionals, such as daycare or preschools) with parental care, which decreases children's exposure to environments where infections are more easily transmitted. Therefore, another aspect revealed by this work is the importance of the environment in which children grow during their first months of life.
Knowledge about the indirect repercussions of paternity leave on infant and child health should be incorporated into the cost-benefit analysis of these public policies, especially when designing work-life balance and care policies. Encouraging fathers' participation in this initial stage of parenting translates into effects that go beyond equality and reach child health.
“"Our results suggest that paternity leave generates changes that go beyond work-life balance and equality: they transform the way children are cared for, modify the environment in which they grow, and can influence their health during a particularly sensitive stage of their development."
The results of this work have been published in the journal “Review of Economics of the Household”. In addition to the aforementioned Camila Regueiro-Ons, the research is co-authored by emeritus Professor Beatriz González López Valcárcel and Professor Jaime Pinilla, all affiliated with the Department of Quantitative Methods in Economics and Management at the ULPGC. The study was supported by the Canarian Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI), the Ministry of Universities, Science, Innovation and Culture, the European Social Fund Plus, and the Health Economics Association.
