The role of public policy in the decisions of parents and caregivers: an examination of work, fertility, and informal caregiving

2018-04-16Modern families in the United States face challenges not encountered in previous generations. Work cultures and family responsibilities rooted in breadwinner and caregiver roles from the past exact a toll on the growing number of families headed by single parents and dual earners. Rather than devoting time to only one domain, today’s workers often divide their time between working and caring for their children or parents. Public policies in the U.S. evolved over time to address some of these challenges. Research in several disciplines evaluates the impact of policies addressing work-life balance on the outcomes of some beneficiaries, but significant gaps remain in our understanding of their effectiveness throughout different stages in the life cycle and there is little systematic evidence of the impact of the patchwork of policies supporting family caregivers. This three-chapter dissertation addresses many of the gaps in the literature and suggests avenues for future research. The first two chapters analyze the impact of California’s paid family leave (PFL) policy on fertility outcomes and the labor supply of parents of children with disabilities, using difference-in-differences estimation to compare outcomes in California before and after PFL with a control group. I find the likelihood a woman ages 25 to 40 had a child in the last year increased by about 6.0 percent for all women in California, relative to similar states with no paid leave, and 7.6 percent for women working fulltime. Among parents of children with disabilities, my results suggest access to PFL increased the labor force participation of their mothers and fathers, by 9.4 and 4.3 percent, respectively, when compared to parents in California of children with no disability and parents in the rest of the United States. The final chapter explores policies supporting family caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). Through a review of the policies and programs providing government funding and supportive services for these caregivers and a critical analysis of the literature related to their effectiveness, I find a general lack of policy-related research on the federal initiatives. While results from smaller targeted interventions generally indicate national-level policies should positively affect ADRD caregivers, the overall impact of these policies is unknown. This final chapter concludes by identifying several avenues for future research, such as estimating the benefits and costs of each federal policy, and their interactions, to determine which are the most effective and cost-reducing programs. ❧ Together, these studies contribute to the literature on work and care, by highlighting the broad impact of policies on modern families across the life cycle. While virtually everyone will care for a loved one or be cared for some time in their lives, research on policies affecting work-life balance offers little evidence of the benefits beyond new parents. This research estimates the effect of California’s PFL on new fertility outcomes and a group of long-term caregivers, and explores the availability and effectiveness of policies for family caregivers of people with ADRD. The findings presented here demonstrate the potential of these policies to positively impact caregivers and care recipients throughout the life cycle; however, this work also illustrates the need for future research on other groups of caregivers, alternative measures of labor supply, health and wellbeing outcomes, and federal policies for family caregivers