Food for Thought? Breastfeeding and Child Development

Emla Fitzsimons () and Marcos Vera-Hernandez
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Emla Fitzsimons: Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London

No W13/31, IFS Working Papers from Institute for Fiscal Studies

Abstract: We show that children who are born at the weekend or just before are less likely to be breastfed, owing to poorer breastfeeding support services at weekends. We use this variation to estimate the effect of breastfeeding on children's development for a sample of uncomplicated births from low educated mothers. We find that breastfeeding has large effects on children's cognitive development, but not on non-cognitive development or health. Regarding mechanisms, we estimate how breastfeeding affects parental investments in the child and the quality of the mother-child relationship.

Date: 2013-12-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dem and nep-neu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Working Paper: Food for Thought? Breastfeeding and Child Development (2014)
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