Three essays on human capital and labor economics

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20003273

Impact of the Family and Medical Leave Act on Female Physician Specialty Choice: This paper examines the effect that the enactment of the U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) had on choice of female physician medical specialty. I use break point testing and joint hypothesis testing to find that the highest R-squared values for the trend break for the system of specialties occur in the year immediately following the legislation's passage and that the FMLA had a statistically significant trend break in female physician specialty choice in 32 of 39 specialties tested. Legislation that protects the rights of mothers can be utilized to encourage diversity in the selection of specialties in medicine. Further work is required to find the particular characteristics of each specialty that drive choice among female physicians.