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Mothers and Others: Who Invests in Children's Health?

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Author Info
Anne Case
Christina Paxson

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Abstract

We estimate the impact of family structure on investments made in children's health, using data from the 1988 National Health Interview Survey Child Health Supplement. Controlling for household size, income and characteristics, we find that children living with step mothers are significantly less likely to have routine doctor and dentist visits, or to have a place for usual medical care, or for sick care. If children living with step mothers have regular contact with their birth mothers, however, their health care does not suffer relative to that reported for children who reside with their birth mothers. In addition to health investments, we find a significant effect of step mothers on health-related behaviors: children living with step mothers are significantly less likely to wear seatbelts, and are significantly more likely to be living with a cigarette smoker. We cannot reject that investments for children living with birth fathers and step mothers are the same as those made by birth fathers living alone with their children. Who invests in children's health? It appears these investments are made, largely, by a child's mother, and that step mothers are not substitutes for birth mothers in this domain.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 7691.

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Date of creation: May 2000
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7691

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior

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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.:
  1. Anne Case & I-Fen Lin & Sara McLanahan, 2000. "Educational Attainment in Blended Families," NBER Working Papers 7874, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Anne Case & I-Fen Lin & Sara McLanahan, 1999. "Household Resource Allocation in Stepfamilies: Darwin Reflects on the Plight of Cinderella," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 234-238, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Beller, Andrea H & Chung, Seung Sin, 1992. "Family Structure and Educational Attainment of Children: Effects of Remarriage," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 39-59, February.
  4. Case, Anne & Lin, I-Fen & McLanahan, Sara, 2000. "How Hungry Is the Selfish Gene?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(466), pages 781-804, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(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. Thomas DeLeire & Helen Levy, 2001. "Gender, Occupation Choice and the Risk of Death at Work," Working Papers 0122, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Yuyu Chen & Hongbin Li, 2006. "Mother's Education and Child Health: Is There a Nurturing Effect?," Discussion Papers 00021, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Richard Akresh, 2004. "Adjusting Household Structure: School Enrollment Impacts of Child Fostering in Burkina Faso," Working Papers 897, Economic Growth Center, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Cavalcanti, Tiago V. de V. & Tavares, Jose, 2003. "Women Prefer Larger Governments: Female Labor Supply and Public Spending," FEUNL Working Paper Series wp433, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Economia. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Anne Case & Christina Paxson & Joseph Ableidinger, 2002. "Orphans in Africa," NBER Working Papers 9213, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Dubois, Pierre & Rubio-Codina, Marta, 2009. "Child Care Provision: Semiparametric Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Mexico," CEPR Discussion Papers 7203, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Tiago V. de V. Cavalcanti & José Tavares, 2004. "Assessing The "Engines Of Liberation": Home Appliances And Female Labor Force Participation," Anais do XXXII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 32th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 037, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pósgraduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics]. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Anne Case & I-Fen Lin & Sara McLanahan, 2000. "Educational Attainment in Blended Families," NBER Working Papers 7874, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Anca Cotet, 2009. "Death And Taxes: The Impact Of Progressive Taxation On Health," Working Papers 200903, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2009. [Downloadable!]
  10. Andrés Romeu & Ignacio Ortuño Ortín, 2003. "Altruism Vs. Exchange In Intergenerational Transfers: New Evidence From Children'S Health Care," Working Papers. Serie AD 2003-26, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie). [Downloadable!]
  11. Katja Coneus & C. Katharina Spieß, 2008. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Health in Early Childhood," SOEPpapers 126, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). [Downloadable!]
  12. Thomas DeLeire & Ariel Kalil, 2002. "How Do Cohabiting Couples With Children Spend Their Money?," Working Papers 0204, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago. [Downloadable!]
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