Journal
JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS
Volume 30, Issue 2, Pages 240-257Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2011.01.001
Keywords
Children's health; Maternal employment; Women's labor supply
Funding
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [R36HS017375-01]
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The effects of maternal employment on children's health are theoretically ambiguous and challenging to identify. There are trade-offs between income and time, and a mother's decision to work reflects, in part, her children's health and her underlying preferences. I utilize exogenous variation in each child's youngest sibling's eligibility for kindergarten as an instrument. Using the restricted-access National Health Interview Survey (1985-2004), I identify the effects on overnight hospitalizations, asthma episodes, and injuries/poisonings for children ages 7-17. Maternal employment increases the probability of each adverse health event by nearly 200 percent. These effects are robust and do not reflect a nonrepresentative local effect. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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