Family leave policies can be structured in widely divergent ways and aimed at very different ends. With a proliferation of proposals, it is vital that policymakers make evidence-based decisions with clear pathways to implementation and reasonable expectations of achieving specific policy outcomes. In order to have a family leave policy that fits such a demanding criteria, it is important to first survey existing literature to identify the range of effects that policymakers might expect to see from an expansion in paid family leave. This IFS policy brief does so with a focus on paid parental leave, a topic that has garnered a sizeable body of research.

In general, parental leave benefits provided in the first weeks of a child’s life have been most clearly shown to benefit child health and maternal attachment to work, with more mixed proof for impacts on marital stability, parental employment, and fertility achievement. Because benefits for child well-being are much more clearly demonstrated than other potential outcomes, a paid family leave proposal should primarily be designed with child welfare, rather than parental labor outcomes or fertility achievement, in mind.