Economics

The project seeks to develop new methods for modeling, estimation, and inference in panel data models with a factor error or approximate factor error structure. This error structure has roots in economics and finance, and the usual additive individual effects and time effects are special cases of this structure. Explanatory variables are correlated with unobserved factors and factor loadings.

53.3% of employed US mothers were on leave one month after having a child, versus only .8% for fathers [Han et al., 2009]. The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act is exceptional in being a US policy mandating unpaid job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons, including childbirth. Surprisingly little is known about the first-order labor market effects of this policy, principally for data reasons. Benefit mandates like the FMLA have costs and benefits which are notoriously difficult to assess.