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Title: Effects of Maternal Labor Force Participation and Income on Child Development
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. James-Burdumy, Susanne N.
Effects of Maternal Labor Force Participation and Income on Child Development
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, The Johns Hopkins University, 2000
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Child Care; Endogeneity; Family Income; Household Composition; Maternal Employment; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Siblings; Variables, Instrumental

Whether and to what degree a mother's labor force participation affects a child's achievement is of concern to both policy makers and families. The first part of this dissertation examines the impact of maternal employment on child development. Coefficient estimates from models without fixed effects and without corrections for the endogeneity of maternal employment may be biased and inconsistent. This dissertation reexamines the link between maternal employment and child development through the use of an instrumental variables mother fixed effects model to correct for the endogeneity of maternal employment and the presence of unobserved individual characteristics. Generalized method of moments is used for estimation. Hausman test results indicate that fixed effects are needed for consistent estimates of the impact of hours of work on child scores. The fixed effects results show no effect of hours or weeks worked by the mother in years 1, 2, or 3 on child test scores. The degree to which income affects child development has been a hotly disputed topic in the recent child development literature. The second part of this dissertation examines the effect of income from different sources on child development. The estimation controls for any correlation between the time-invariant part of the error in the child development equation and the income variables and for any correlation between the time-varying part of the error and the income variables. The model and methods developed in the first part of the dissertation are used. The model suggests that the effect of income varies depending on the source. Results show no effect of non-maternal income on child scores and a small effect of maternal earnings and maternal wages on test scores of children. In conclusion, the results strongly suggest that weeks worked and hours worked do not impact scores. Results also imply that family income and non-maternal income have no effect on child development, but maternal earnings and maternal wages positively impact scores.
Bibliography Citation
James-Burdumy, Susanne N. Effects of Maternal Labor Force Participation and Income on Child Development. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, The Johns Hopkins University, 2000.