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Child sleep and mother labour market outcomes

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  • Costa-Font, Joan
  • Flèche, Sarah

Abstract

We show that sleep deprivation exerts strong negative effects on mothers’ labour market performance. To isolate variations in maternal sleep, we exploit unique variations in child sleep disruption using a UK panel dataset that follows mother-child pairs through time. We find that sleeping one hour less per night on average significantly decreases maternal labour force participation, the number of hours worked and household income. We identify one mechanism driving the effects, namely the influence of maternal sleep on selection into full-time versus part-time work. Increased schedule flexibility for mothers with sufficient tenure mitigates the negative effects of sleep deprivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Costa-Font, Joan & Flèche, Sarah, 2020. "Child sleep and mother labour market outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:69:y:2020:i:c:s0167629619301985
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.102258
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    Cited by:

    1. Costa-Font, Joan & Fleche, Sarah & Pagan, Ricardo, 2024. "The labour market returns to sleep," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
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    3. Joan Costa-Font, 2022. "Incentivizing sleep?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 502-502, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child sleep; Sleep; Maternal employment; Working hours; Workplace flexibility; ALSPAC;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy

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