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Title: Is Breastfeeding Truly Cost Free? Income Consequences of Breastfeeding for Women
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Rippeyoung, Phyllis L. F. Noonan, Mary Christine |
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Is Breastfeeding Truly Cost Free? Income Consequences of Breastfeeding for Women American Sociological Review 77,2 (April 2012): 244-267. Also: http://asr.sagepub.com/content/77/2/244 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: American Sociological Association Keyword(s): Breastfeeding; Earnings; Maternal Employment; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Modeling, Random Effects; Mothers, Income; Wage Determination; Wage Effects; Work Hours/Schedule Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Based on studies showing health advantages for breastfeeding mothers and their infants, pediatricians and other breastfeeding advocates encourage new mothers to breastfeed their babies for at least the first six months of their infants’ lives, arguing that breast milk is best for infants, families, and society, and it is cost free. Few empirical studies, however, document how the decision to breastfeed instead of formula-feed is associated with women’s post-birth earnings. This is an important omission, given that the majority of women today work for pay, and many work in job environments incompatible with breastfeeding. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, our results show that mothers who breastfeed for six months or longer suffer more severe and more prolonged earnings losses than do mothers who breastfeed for shorter durations or not at all. The larger post-birth drop in earnings for long-duration breastfeeders is due to a larger reduction in labor supply. We discuss the implications of these findings for gender equality at home and at work. |
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Bibliography Citation
Rippeyoung, Phyllis L. F. and Mary Christine Noonan. "Is Breastfeeding Truly Cost Free? Income Consequences of Breastfeeding for Women." American Sociological Review 77,2 (April 2012): 244-267.
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