When Dad Can Stay Home: Fathers' Workplace Flexibility and Maternal Health

We study how fathers' access to workplace flexibility affects maternal postpartum health. We use variation from a Swedish reform that granted new fathers more flexibility to take intermittent parental leave during the postpartum period and show that increasing the father's temporal flexibility—and thereby his ability to be present at home together with the mother—reduces the incidence of maternal postpartum health complications. Our results suggest that mothers bear part of the burden from a lack of workplace flexibility for men because a father's inability to respond to domestic shocks exacerbates the maternal health cost of childbearing. (JEL D13, I12, J13, J16, J22, J32, M54)