Paid maternity leave is a crucial policy designed to support working women during and after pregnancy, mitigating potential job losses and income disruptions. While the short- and medium-term benefits are well-documented, long-term effects remain understudied. This paper addresses this gap by examining the long-run impacts of paid maternity leave on human capital accumulation, specifically educational attainment and adult height, in 29 developing countries over nearly three decades (1990-2019). This study makes three main contributions. First, it focuses on less-obvious long-term consequences of paid maternity leave, unlike most prior research concentrated on immediate and short-term impacts. Second, by assessing the policy's influence on adult outcomes, it provides further insights into the lasting effects of early-life experiences. Finally, its broad geographical and temporal scope (29 countries) enhances the external validity of its findings. The study employs the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and World Bank data on maternity leave policies to analyze the long-run impacts of this policy intervention.

This research builds upon two existing bodies of literature. The first focuses on the effects of maternity leave on child development and maternal well-being. Studies in high-income countries consistently demonstrate links between maternity leave policies and improvements in child health, reduced infant mortality, and better maternal health outcomes, including mental well-being. However, evidence from developing countries is limited. The second line of research investigates the long-term consequences of early-life circumstances on adult outcomes. Adult height is a crucial measure of human capital, reflecting cumulative nutritional intake and health. Educational attainment is another key aspect, linked to various positive life outcomes. Prior studies highlight the significant influence of early nutrition, childhood health, socioeconomic conditions, and government policies on adult health and education levels. This study expands on this research by exploring the long-term influence of paid maternity leave, a specific early-life policy intervention, on educational attainment and height as measures of human capital accumulation.

The study uses data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the World Bank's Women, Business and the Law 2021 data. The DHS provides individual-level data on educational attainment (in years and high school completion), height (in centimeters and height-for-age Z-scores), and demographic variables (age, gender, marital status, rural residence, household head). The World Bank data provide information on paid maternity leave policies, including duration and implementation years. The analysis focuses on individuals aged 18 and above (later expanded to 22 and above in sensitivity checks) from countries where maternity leave is fully government-administered, excluding optional or privately-funded leaves to ensure the exogeneity of the policy variable. The empirical strategy utilizes a regression model to estimate the long-run effects of paid maternity leave on educational attainment and adult height. The model incorporates residential cluster, birth year, and survey year fixed effects to control for unobserved time-invariant and time-varying confounders at different levels. Individual characteristics (gender, marital status, age, age-squared, rural residence, household head) are included as controls. The coefficient of interest is the effect of an additional week of paid maternity leave on the outcomes. Robustness checks include using different outcome measures (high school completion, height-for-age Z-score), employing alternative sample windows (5-year and 2-year around policy implementation), analyzing the unweighted data, and adding country-specific quadratic trends.

The main findings indicate a positive association between the duration of paid maternity leave and both educational attainment and adult height. An additional week of paid maternity leave is associated with approximately 0.007 additional years of education and a 0.056 cm increase in adult height. These effects are statistically significant and persist across multiple robustness checks. Specifically: * **Sensitivity to model specifications:** The estimated effects remain consistent even after controlling for individual characteristics, country-level fixed effects, and residential cluster fixed effects. This suggests that the observed association is not driven by confounding factors. * **Sensitivity to outcome measures:** The positive effect of paid maternity leave is found using alternative measures of education (high school completion) and height (height-for-age Z-score). * **Sensitivity to sample window:** Results remain robust when restricting the sample to individuals born within a narrower time window (5 years and 2 years) around the implementation of the maternity leave policy, minimizing the influence of other time-varying factors. * **Sensitivity to weighting:** Removing sampling weights does not materially alter the findings. * **Sensitivity to age cutoffs:** Extending the age cutoff from 18 to 22 years does not alter the results substantially. * **Sensitivity to quadratic trends:** The inclusion of country-specific quadratic trends does not change the primary findings. The magnitude of the effects is comparable to the impacts of other significant factors such as early-life rainfall exposure on these outcomes, suggesting notable long-term consequences of paid maternity leave.

The findings strongly suggest that paid maternity leave has substantial long-term positive consequences for human capital development in developing countries. The observed effects on educational attainment and adult height likely stem from multiple mechanisms. Extended time spent with the mother can lead to improved childhood health, nutrition, and cognitive development, ultimately influencing long-term outcomes. Paid leave also reduces the likelihood of relying on non-parental childcare, which can have negative consequences for child development. Moreover, the financial support provided through paid leave enables mothers to invest in their children's health and well-being. These findings emphasize the importance of considering the long-term impacts of early-life circumstances and the significant role of policies that support maternal well-being.

This study provides robust evidence supporting the long-term benefits of paid maternity leave on educational attainment and adult height in developing countries. The findings highlight the importance of investing in policies that promote maternal and child well-being. The magnitude of the effect, comparable to other influential factors, underscores the significant and previously underestimated long-term returns of this policy intervention. Future research could explore the intergenerational effects of paid maternity leave and investigate the optimal duration of paid leave in various contexts.

While the study employs rigorous methods to control for confounding factors, limitations remain. The study focuses on government-administered paid leave, potentially excluding the effects of optional or privately-funded programs. The data reliance on self-reported information on education and height may introduce some measurement error. Further, the analysis does not explicitly disentangle the various mechanisms through which paid leave impacts human capital. Nevertheless, the robustness checks and the large sample size enhance the validity of the findings.