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Parental Employment and Child Cognitive Development

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Author Info
Christopher J. Ruhm

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Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between parental employment and child cognitive development using data from multiple years of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Maternal labor supply during the first three years of the child's life is predicted to have a small negative effect on the verbal ability of 3 and 4 year olds and a substantial detrimental impact on the reading and math achievement of 5 and 6 year olds. Working during the second and third years appears to have less favorable or more deleterious consequences when the mother is also employed in the first year. The results are robust to the inclusion of controls for day care arrangements or paternal job-holding and there is some indication that early employment may be particularly costly for children in traditional' two-parent families. Finally, the data suggest that paternal and maternal employment have qualitatively similar effects, hinting at the importance of time investments by fathers. The overall conclusion is that previous research may have provided an overly optimistic assessment of the effects of parental employment on child cognitive development.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 7666.

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Date of creation: Apr 2000
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7666

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production
J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
  3. Currie, Janet & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Does Head Start Make a Difference?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 341-64, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-55, March-Apr. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Stafford, Frank P, 1987. "Women's Work, Sibling Competition, and Children's School Performance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 972-80, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe, 1995. "The Determinants of Children's Attainments: A Review of Methods and Findings," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1829-1878, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Blau, Francine D & Grossberg, Adam J, 1992. "Maternal Labor Supply and Children's Cognitive Development," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(3), pages 474-81, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. James J. Heckman, 1999. "Policies to Foster Human Capital," NBER Working Papers 7288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Janet Currie & Duncan Thomas, 1999. "Early Test Scores, Socioeconomic Status and Future Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 6943, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Pierre Lefebvre & Philip Merrigan, 2000. "The Effect of Childcare and Early Education Arrangements on Developmental Outcomes of Young Children," Cahiers de recherche CREFE / CREFE Working Papers 119, CREFE, Université du Québec à Montréal. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Marco Francesconi & Stephen P. Jenkins & Thomas Siedler, 2006. "Childhood Family Structure and Schooling Outcomes : Evidence for Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 610, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Alison Aughinbaugh & Maury Gittleman, 2003. "Maternal Employment and Adolescent Risky Behavior," Labor and Demography 0302002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Samuel Berlinski & Sebastian Galiani & Paul Gertler, 2006. "The effect of pre-primary education on primary school performance," IFS Working Papers W06/04, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. John Ermisch, 2003. "How Do Parents Affect the Life Chances of Their Children as Adults? An Idiosyncratic Review," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 101, McMaster University. [Downloadable!]
  6. repec:ese:iserwp: is not listed on IDEAS
  7. Janet Currie & V. Joseph Hotz, 2002. "Accidents Will Happen? Unintentional Childhood Injuries and the Effects of Child Care Regulations," JCPR Working Papers 268, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Quinn Moore & Lucie Schmidt, 2004. "Do Maternal Investments in Human Capital Affect Children's Academic Achievement?," Department of Economics Working Papers 194, Department of Economics, Williams College. [Downloadable!]
  9. Fali Huang, 2006. "What Matter for Child Development?," Working Papers 24-2006, Singapore Management University, School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  10. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2004. "How Well Do Parents With Young Children Combine Work and Family Life," NBER Working Papers 10247, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Matthew J. Neidell, 2000. "Early Parental Time Investments In Children's Human Capital Development: Effects Of Time In The First Year On Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Outcomes," UCLA Economics Working Papers 806, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  12. Angela Fertig & Gerhard Glomm & Rusty Tchernis, 2006. "The Connection Between Maternal Employment and Childhood Obesity: Inspecting the Mechanisms," Caepr Working Papers 2006-020, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Economics Department, Indiana University Bloomington. [Downloadable!]
  13. Jane Waldfogel, 2004. "Social Mobility, Life Chances, and the Early Years," CASE Papers 088, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  14. Michael Baker & Jonathan Gruber & Kevin Milligan, 2005. "Universal Childcare, Maternal Labor Supply, and Family Well-Being," NBER Working Papers 11832, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Pierre Lefebvre & Philip Merrigan & Matthieu Verstraete, 2006. "Impact of Early Childhood Care and Education on Children's Preschool Cognitive Development: Canadian Results from a Large Quasi-experiment," Cahiers de recherche 0636, CIRPEE. [Downloadable!]
  16. Stephanie Von Hinke Kessler Scholder, 2007. "Maternal Employment and Overweight Children: Does Timing Matter?," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 07/12, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
  17. Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder, 2007. "Maternal Employment and Overweight Children: Does Timing Matter?," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 07/180, Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK. [Downloadable!]
  18. Anna Aizzer, 2001. "Home Alone: Maternal Employment, Child Care and Adolescent Behavior," UCLA Economics Working Papers 807, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  19. Raquel Bernal, 2004. "Employment and Child Care Decisions of Mothers and the Well-being of their Children," Econometric Society 2004 North American Winter Meetings 361, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
  20. Libertad González Luna, 2005. "Single Mothers and Incentives to Work: The French Experience," Economics Working Papers 818, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
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