The effect of breastfeeding on young adult wages: new evidence from the add health
Tóm tắt
A growing literature in economics has examined the effect of early childhood health investments on adult human capital formation and labor market outcomes. This study is the first to examine the effect of having been breastfed as an infant on young adult earnings. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), ordinary least squares estimates suggest that breastfeeding is associated with a 10–12 % increase in hourly earnings. However, after ensuring common support on observables via propensity score matching and controlling for unmeasured family level heterogeneity common to siblings via family fixed effects, the estimated associations become much smaller and are statistically indistinguishable from zero. We conclude that the benefits of having been breastfed do not appear to extend to the labor market.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Almond, D., & Currie, J. (2011). Human capital development before age five. In O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (Eds.), Handbook of labor economics (Vol. 4B). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Baker, M., & Milligan, K. (2008). Maternal employment, breastfeeding, and health: Evidence from maternity leave mandates. Journal of Health Economics, 27(4), 871–887.
Belfield, C. R., & Kelly, I. R. (2012). The benefits of breastfeeding across the early years of childhood. Journal of Human Capital, 6(3), 251–277.
Blau, D. M., Guilkey, D. K., & Popkin, B. M. (1996). Infant health and the labor supply of mothers. Journal of Human Resources, 31(1), 90–139.
Case, A., Fertig, A., & Paxson, C. (2005). The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance. Journal of Health Economics, 22(2), 365–389.
Chatterji, P., & Frick, K. D. (2005). Does returning to work after childbirth affect breastfeeding practices? Review of Economics of the Household, 3(3), 315–335.
Cunha, F., & Heckman, J. (2007). The technology of skill formation. American Economic Review, 97(2), 31–47.
Der, G., Batty, D., & Deary, I. J. (2006). Effect of breast feeding on intelligence in children: Prospective study, sibling pairs analysis, and meta-analysis. British Medical Journal, 333, 945–948.
Dinour, L. M., Gina, A. P., & Yeon, K. (2015). Breast milk pumping beliefs, supports, and barriers on a University campus. Journal of Human Lactation, 31(1), 156–165.
Evenhouse, E., & Reilly, S. (2005). Improved estimates of the benefits of breastfeeding using sibling comparisons to reduce selection bias. Health Services Research, 40(6), 1781–1802.
Fein, S. B., & Roe, B. (1998). The effect of work status on initiation and duration of breast-feeding. American Journal of Public Health, 88(7), 1042–1046.
Fletcher, J. M. (2011). Long-term effects of health investments and parental favoritism: The case of breastfeeding. Health Economics, 20(11), 1349–1361.
Green, T. (2011). Infant feeding and asthma: Is breast milk best? Review of Economics of the Household, 9(4), 487–504.
Hassiotou, F., & Geddes, D. T. (2015). Immune cell-mediated protection of the mammary gland and the infant during breastfeeding. Advances in Nutrition: An International Review Journal, 6(3), 267–275. doi:10.3945/an.114.007377.
Horta, B. L., Bahl, R., Martinez, J. C., & Victora, C. G. (2007). Evidence on the long-term effects of breastfeeding: Systematic review and meta-analyses. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Ip, S., Chung, M., Raman, G., Chew, P., Magula, N., & DeVine, D., et al. (2007). Breastfeeding and maternal and infant health outcomes in developed countries. Evidence report/technology assessment no. 153 (Prepared by Tufts-New England Medical Center Evidence-based Practice Center, under Contract No. 290-02-0022). AHRQ Publication No. 07-E007. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Jackson, K. M., & Nazar, A. M. (2006). Breastfeeding, the immune response, and long-term health. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 106(4), 203–207.
Jiang, M., Foster, E. M., & Gibson-Davis, C. M. (2011). Breastfeeding and the child cognitive outcomes: A propensity score matching approach. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 15(8), 1296–1307. doi:10.1007/s10995-010-0677-5.
Kobayashi, M., & Usui, E. (2014). Breastfeeding practices and parental employment in Japan. Review of Economics of the Household,. doi:10.1007/s11150-014-9246-9.
Kools, E. J., Thijs, C., Kester, A. D. M., & de Vries, H. (2006). The motivational determinants of breast-feeding: Predictors for the continuation of breast-feeding. Preventive Medicine, 43(5), 394–401.
Kramer, M. S., Chalmers, B., Hodnett, E. D., Sevkovskaya, Z., Dzikovich, I., Shapiro, S., et al. (2001). Promotion of breastfeeding intervention trial (PROBIT): A randomized trial in the Republic of Belarus. JAMA, 285(4), 413–420.
Kramer, M. S., Fombonne, E., Igumnov, S., Vanilovich, I., Matush, L., Mironova, E., et al. (2008). Effects of prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding on child behavior and maternal adjustment: Evidence from a large, randomized trial. Pediatrics, 121(3), e435–e440.
Lindberg, L. D. (1996). Women’s decisions about breastfeeding and maternal employment. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58(1), 239–251.
Makrides, M., Neumann, M. A., Byard, R. W., Simmer, K., & Gibson, R. A. (1994). Fatty acid composition of brain, retina, and erythrocytes in breast-and formula-fed infants. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 60(2), 189–194.
Mandal, B., Roe, B. E., & Fein, S. B. (2014). Work and breastfeeding decisions are jointly determined for higher socioeconomic status US mothers. Review of Economics of the Household, 12(2), 237–257.
Martinez, G. A., & Krieger, F. W. (1985). 1984 Milk-feeding patterns in the United States. Pediatrics, 76, 1004–1008.
Rees, D. I., & Sabia, J. J. (2009). The effect of breast feeding on educational attainment: Evidence from sibling data. Journal of Human Capital, 3(1), 43–72.
Roe, B., Whittington, L. A., Fein, S. B., & Teisl, M. F. (1999). Is there competition between breastfeeding and maternal employment? Demography, 36(2), 157–171.
Rossiter, M. D., Cynthia, K. C., Khan, M. K. A, Jessie-Lee, D., Patricia, L. W., & Sara, F. L. et al. (2015). Breast, formula and combination feeding in relation to childhood obesity in Nova Scotia, Canada. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 19(9), 2048–2056.
Rothstein, D. S. (2013). Breastfeeding and children’s early cognitive outcomes. Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(3), 919–931.
Ryan, A. S., & Martinez, G. A. (1989). Breast-feeding and the working mother: A profile. Pediatrics, 83(4), 524–531.
Sabia, J. J., & Rees, D. I. (2012). Body weight and wages: Evidence from add health. Economics and Human Biology, 10(1), 14–19.
Smithers, L. G., Kramer, M. S., & Lynch, J. W. (2015). Effects of breastfeeding on obesity and intelligence: Causal Insights from different study designs. JAMA Pediatrics,. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.0175.
United States Department of Labor. Wage and Hour Division. (2013). Fact Sheet #73: Break time for nursing mothers under the FLSA. http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs73.pdf. Accessed June 19, 2015.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2010). Healthy people 2020. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Wroble, M., Mash, C., Williams, L., & McCall, R. B. (2002). Should long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids be added to infant formula to promote development? Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 23(1), 99–112.