Workshop on Human Potential (Kjell Salvanes, Norwegian School of Economics)
Description
*Special Workshop Session*
This workshop session is co-sponsored with the Demography Workshop and will take place during the Demography Workshop's regular time: Thursday, 12-1:20pm.
Kjell Salvanes, Professor of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, will present, "A Flying Start? Maternity Leave Benefits and Long Run Outcomes of Children."
Abstract: We study the impact on children of increasing maternity leave benefits using a reform that increased paid and unpaid maternity leave in Norway in July 1977. Mothers giving birth before this date were eligible only for 12 weeks of unpaid leave, while those giving birth after were entitled to 4 months of paid leave and 12 months of unpaid leave. This increased time with the child led to a 2 percentage points decline in high school dropout and a 5 % increase in wages at age 30. The effect is especially large for children of those mothers who, prior to the reform, would take very low levels of unpaid leave.
Bio: Kjell G. Salvanes is a Professor in Economics at the Department of Economics at the Norwegian School of Economics, and a Research Associate at Statistics Norway, and Center for the Economics of Education at LSE. He is an Editor for The Economic Journal. His main area of research is in family economics and the economics of education. More specifically his research focus has been on intergenerational mobility, early investment in children and adult labor market outcomes, as well as long term effects of early schooling. He has published extensively in top economics journals in these areas and has contributed in Elsivier’s Handbook of the Economics of Education.
This event is co-sponsored with the Demography Workshop.
The Workshop/Working Group on Human Potential is one of the core intellectual activities of the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy. It is an interdisciplinary forum for graduate students, post docs, and faculty whose work concerns behavior, health, and well-being across the lifespan and the ways in which technology and public policy shape human potential and achievement. The Workshop/Working group has active members in the areas of the social, behavioral, health, and policy sciences.
The Workshop/Working Group on Human Potential alternates between two types of sessions. Not only do we regularly invite outside speakers for a traditional "workshop" presentation, but we also provide a forum for faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students to present research-in-progress in order to receive critical and constructive feedback.
