This paper assesses the impact of the length of maternity leave on children's health outcomes in the long-run. My quasi-experimental design evaluates an expansion in maternity leave coverage from two to six months, which occurred in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1979. The expansion came into effect after a sharp cutoff date and significantly increased the time working mothers stayed at home with their newborns during the first six months after childbirth. Using this cutoff date as a source of exogenous variation, I exploit German hospital registry data, which contains detailed information on the universe of inpatients’ diagnoses from 1995–2014. By tracking the health of treated and control children from age 16 up to age 35, this study provides new insights into the trajectory of health differentials over the life-cycle. I find that the legislative change generated positive long-term health effects: My intention-to-treat estimates show that children born after the implementation of the reform experience fewer hospital admissions and are less likely to be diagnosed with mental and behavioral disorders.

本文评估了产假时间长短对儿童健康结果的长期影响。我的准实验设计评估了 1979 年发生在德意志联邦共和国的产假覆盖范围从两个月扩展到六个月。扩展在一个明确的截止日期后生效，并显着增加了工作母亲留在家里的时间他们在分娩后的头六个月内的新生儿。使用这个截止日期作为外源变异的来源，我利用德国医院登记数据，其中包含关于 1995 年至 2014 年住院患者诊断范围的详细信息。通过跟踪从 16 岁到 35 岁接受治疗和控制的儿童的健康状况，这项研究为生命周期中健康差异的轨迹提供了新的见解。