Abstract
This study exploits plausibly exogenous variation derived from the youngest sibling’s school eligibility to estimate the effects of maternal work on the weight outcomes of older children. We first show that mothers’ work hours increase gradually along both the extensive and intensive margins as the age of the youngest child rises, whereas mothers’ spouses’ work hours do not appear to be responsive. We develop an instrumental-variables model that shows that mothers’ work hours lead to larger increases in children’s body mass index z-scores and probabilities of being overweight/obese than those identified in previous studies. Subsample analyses find that the effects are concentrated among advantaged households.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 2019
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1086/705609
Related Content
Supplementary materials are available online at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/suppl/10.1086/705609.
Repository Citation
Courtemanche, Charles J.; Tchernis, Rusty; and Zhou, Xilin, "Maternal Work Hours and Childhood Obesity: Evidence Using Instrumental Variables Related to Sibling School Eligibility" (2019). Economics Faculty Publications. 8.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/economics_facpub/8
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Journal of Human Capital, v. 13, no. 4.
© 2019 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
The copyright holder has granted the permission to post the article here.