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The Effect of Maternal Employment on Children's Academic Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Rachel Dunifon
  • Anne Toft Hansen
  • Sean Nicholson
  • Lisbeth Palmhøj Nielsen

Abstract

Using a Danish data set that follows 135,000 Danish children from birth through 9th grade, we examine the effect of maternal employment during a child's first three and first 15 years on that child's grade point average in 9th grade. We address the endogeneity of employment by including a rich set of household control variables, instrumenting for employment with the gender- and education-specific local unemployment rate, and by including maternal fixed effects. We find that maternal employment has a positive effect on children's academic performance in all specifications, particularly when women work part-time. This is in contrast with the larger literature on maternal employment, much of which takes place in other contexts, and which finds no or a small negative effect of maternal employment on children's cognitive development and academic performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Rachel Dunifon & Anne Toft Hansen & Sean Nicholson & Lisbeth Palmhøj Nielsen, 2013. "The Effect of Maternal Employment on Children's Academic Performance," NBER Working Papers 19364, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19364
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Cheng Chen & Shin-Yi Chou & Robert J. Thornton, 2015. "The Effect of Household Technology on Weight and Health Outcomes among Chinese Adults: Evidence from China's "Home Appliances Going to the Countryside" Policy," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(3), pages 364-401.
    2. Andrew E. Clark & Warn N. Lekfuangfu & Nattavudh Powdthavee & George Ward, 2015. "Early Maternal Employment and Non-cognitive Outcomes in Early Childhood and Adolescence: Evidence from British Birth Cohort Data," CEP Discussion Papers dp1380, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Brea-Martinez, Gabriel, 2021. "The beneficial impact of mother’s work on children’s absolute income mobility, Southern Sweden (1947-2015)," SocArXiv c27s8, Center for Open Science.
    4. Katrin Huber, 2015. "Moving to an Earnings-Related Parental Leave System: Do Heterogeneous Effects on Parents Make Some Children Worse Off?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 791, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Michael Clemens and Timothy N. Ogden, 2014. "Migration as a Strategy for Household Finance: A Research Agenda on Remittances, Payments, and Development- Working Paper 354," Working Papers 354, Center for Global Development.
    6. Hashimzade, Nigar, 2020. "Endogenous preferences for parenting and macroeconomic outcomes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 267-279.
    7. Nick Drydakis, 2023. "Parental unemployment and adolescents' academic performance," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(7), pages 1362-1381, February.
    8. Martha H. Stinson & Peter Gottschalk, 2015. "Is there an Advantage to Working? The Relationship between Maternal Employment and Intergenerational Mobility," Working Papers 15-27, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    9. Nie, Huihua & Zhao, Huainan, 2013. "Leverage and Employee Death: Evidence from China’s Coalmining Industry," MPRA Paper 52343, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    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

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