$20,000
COVID-19 and Paid Leave: Assessing the Impact of the FFCRA
2020
Tanya Byker is an associate professor of economics at Middlebury College. Her research focuses on the interrelated choices individuals make about education, work, and parenthood. She has studied how birth-related career interruptions in the United States vary by mother’s education, and the ways that parental leave laws impact labor supply decisions.
In a developing country context, she has studied how access to family planning impacts fertility and longer-term outcomes such as schooling and employment in Peru and South Africa. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan in 2014 and her B.A. with honors in economics and philosophy from Swarthmore College.
Funded Research
$75,868
Using IRS tax data to measure the long-term effects of California’s 2004 Paid Family Leave Act
2018
Authored by Tanya Byker
Policy
Emergency paid leave during the COVID-19 pandemic offered essential protections for U.S. workers (opens in a new tab)
Essays SEP 23, 2025
By: Tanya Byker, Elena Patel, Kristin Smith
Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Tanya Byker’s Working Papers
Academic
Fitting the Bill? The First Federal Paid Leave Mandate (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers SEP 23, 2025
By: Tanya Byker, Elena Patel, Kristin Smith
Economic Equity & Opportunity
Household Economic Security
Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Academic
Fitting the Bill? The First Federal Paid Leave Mandate (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers MAY 4, 2023
By: Tanya Byker, Elena Patel, Kristin Smith
Household Economic Security
Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Academic
Who Cares? Paid Sick Leave Mandates, Care-Giving, and Gender (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers MAY 4, 2023
By: Tanya Byker, Elena Patel, Shanthi Ramnath
Economic Equity & Opportunity
Household Economic Security
Academic
Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Effect on Paid Leave Taking During the Early Pandemic (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers NOV 3, 2022
By: Tanya Byker, Elena Patel, Kristin Smith
Household Economic Security
Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Academic
The Long-Term Effects of California’s 2004 Paid Family Leave Act on Women’s Careers: Evidence from U.S. Tax Data (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers NOV 6, 2019
By: Martha Bailey, Tanya Byker, Elena Patel, Shanthi Ramnath
Household Economic Security
Labor, Wages & Worker Power
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