Citation
Fletcher, J. M. (2010). Long-term effects of health investments and parental favoritism: the case of breastfeeding.
Health Economics. vol. 20 (11) pp. 1349-61
Abstract
This paper re-examines the effects of breastfeeding on long-term educational outcomes using longitudinal data on siblings. While family-fixed effects allow controls for all shared family factors, these estimators are sensitive to compensating or reinforcing behaviors by parents. These biases may be particularly important for estimating the effects of parental investment such as breast feeding, where sibling discordance may be difficult to treat as a random outcome and may result in persistence in differential investments between siblings. This paper uses a unique question asked to adolescent siblings about parental favoritism to adjust for potential reinforcing behavior by parents. Standard fixed effects estimates suggest important long-term educational effects of breastfeeding; however, these effects are uniformly eliminated after focusing on families who treat siblings equally. These findings shed light on the mechanisms linking associations between breastfeeding and longer term outcomes.
URL
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20960419Keyword(s)
Adolescent Adolescent Psychology Breast Feeding/ statistics & numerical data Educational Status Female Humans Interviews as Topic Male National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health/statistics & numerical data Parent-Child Relations Questionnaires Sib
Reference Type
Journal Article
Journal Title
Health Economics
Author(s)
Fletcher, J. M.
Year Published
2010
Volume Number
20
Issue Number
11
Pages
1349-61
Edition
10/21
ISSN/ISBN
1099-1050 (Electronic) 1057-9230 (Linking)
DOI
10.1002/hec.1675
Reference ID
7515
