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Title: The Effect of Maternal Labor Force Participation on Child Development
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. James-Burdumy, Susanne N.
The Effect of Maternal Labor Force Participation on Child Development
Working Paper, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Princeton, NJ, December 1999
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Keyword(s): Child Care; Child Development; Endogeneity; Maternal Employment; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Variables, Instrumental

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

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 paper examines 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.
Bibliography Citation
James-Burdumy, Susanne N. "The Effect of Maternal Labor Force Participation on Child Development." Working Paper, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Princeton, NJ, December 1999.