1 CAN MATERNITY BENEFITS HAVE LONG-TERM EFFECTS ON CHILDBEARING? EVIDENCE FROM SOVIET RUSSIA

This paper quantifies effects of a maternity benefit program in Russia on childbearing. The program provided one year of partially paid parental leave and a small cash benefit upon child’s birth and was implemented in waves around the country starting in 1981. I exploit the program’s two-stage implementation across regions in an event-study framework and find evidence that women had more children as a result of the program. Fertility rates rose immediately by approximately ten percent over twelve months. The increase in fertility rates not only persisted for the ten-year duration of the program, but it reflected large increases in higher parity births to older women