American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Breastfeeding and Child Development
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
(pp. 329–66)
Abstract
We show that children who are born at or just before the weekend are less likely to be breastfed, owing to poorer breastfeeding support services in hospitals at weekends. We use this variation to estimate the effect of breastfeeding on children's development in the first seven years of life, for a sample of births of low-educated mothers. We find large effects of breastfeeding on children's cognitive development but no effects on health or noncognitive development during the period of childhood we consider. Regarding mechanisms, we study how breastfeeding affects parental investments and the quality of the mother-child relationship.Citation
Fitzsimons, Emla, and Marcos Vera-Hernández. 2022. "Breastfeeding and Child Development." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 14 (3): 329–66. DOI: 10.1257/app.20180385Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I12 Health Behavior
- I14 Health and Inequality
- I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity