The incidence of mandated maternity benefits.

TLDR

The effectiveness of maternity benefit mandates depends on how much their costs are passed on to wages of the targeted group. The study examines the labor‑market effects of mandates that increase the cost of employing a demographically identifiable group. The analysis compares state and federal mandates requiring comprehensive childbirth coverage, which raise the relative cost of insuring women of childbearing age. The mandates’ costs are largely shifted to wages of the targeted group, yet this has little impact on their overall labor input.

Abstract

I consider the labor-market effects of mandates which raise the costs of employing a demographically identifiable group. The efficiency of these policies will be largely dependent on the extent to which their costs are shifted to group-specific wages. I study several state and federal mandates which stipulated that childbirth be covered comprehensively in health insurance plans, raising the relative cost of insuring women of childbearing age. I find substantial shifting of the costs of these mandates to the wages of the targeted group. Correspondingly, I find little effect on total labor input for that group.