The impact of smoking during pregnancy on children's body weight

Kabir Dasgupta (), Keshar Ghimire and Gail Pacheco

No 2018-04, Working Papers from Auckland University of Technology, Department of Economics

Abstract: We study the effect of mothers' smoking during pregnancy on children's body weight outcomes during pre-school ages using a nationally representative sample of children surveyed in NLSY79 Children and Young Adults. Exploiting ‘within mother and across pregnancies’ variation in smoking behavior, we find that maternal smoking during pregnancy has a negative effect on weight outcomes at birth but the children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy catch up with the children of non-smokers, usually within their first-year post birth. We also find evidence to suggest that children of smokers in later pre-school ages (3 to 5 years old) are likely to have higher weight outcomes relative to children of non-smokers when their mother reported higher intensity levels of smoking (greater than one pack per day).

Keywords: Maternal smoking; Children's health outcomes; child weight; child BMI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aut:wpaper:201804

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