IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lsu/lsuwpp/2016-09.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Breastfeeding and Early Childhood Outcomes: Is There a Causal Relationship?

Author

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of breastfeeding on early childhood outcomes. Using Birth Cohort of Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey data and employing a recently developed econometric technique, we estimate the upper and lower bounds of the effect of breastfeeding on early childhood health and cognitive ability. We find that even a small fraction of selection on unobservables explains the entire effect of breastfeeding on early childhood outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Masayuki Onda, 2016. "Breastfeeding and Early Childhood Outcomes: Is There a Causal Relationship?," Departmental Working Papers 2016-09, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    • Handle: RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2016-09
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.lsu.edu/business/economics/files/workingpapers/pap16_09.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    2. Clive R. Belfield & Inas Rashad Kelly, 2012. "The Benefits of Breast Feeding across the Early Years of Childhood," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(3), pages 251-277.
    3. Jason M. Fletcher, 2011. "Long‐term effects of health investments and parental favoritism: the case of breastfeeding," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(11), pages 1349-1361, November.
    4. Raisler, J. & Alexander, C. & O'Campo, P., 1999. "Breast-feeding and infant illness: A dose-response relationship?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(1), pages 25-30.
    5. Jonah B. Gelbach, 2016. "When Do Covariates Matter? And Which Ones, and How Much?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(2), pages 509-543.
    6. Baker, Michael & Milligan, Kevin, 2008. "Maternal employment, breastfeeding, and health: Evidence from maternity leave mandates," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 871-887, July.
    7. Daniel I. Rees & Joseph J. Sabia, 2009. "The Effect of Breast Feeding on Educational Attainment: Evidence from Sibling Data," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 43-72.
    8. Morrow-Tlucak, Mary & Haude, Richard H. & Ernhart, Claire B., 1988. "Breastfeeding and cognitive development in the first 2 years of life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 635-639, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Resul Cesur & Joseph J. Sabia & Inas Rashad Kelly & Muzhe Yang, 2017. "The effect of breastfeeding on young adult wages: new evidence from the add health," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 25-51, March.
    2. Del Bono, Emilia & Rabe, Birgitta, 2012. "Breastfeeding and child cognitive outcomes: evidence from a hospital-based breastfeeding support policy," ISER Working Paper Series 2012-29, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    3. Arthi, Vellore & Schneider, Eric B., 2021. "Infant feeding and post-weaning health: Evidence from turn-of-the-century London," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    4. Borra, Cristina & Iacovou, Maria & Sevilla, Almudena, 2012. "The effect of breastfeeding on children's cognitive and noncognitive development," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 496-515.
    5. Khudri, Md Mohsan & Hussey, Andrew, 2024. "Breastfeeding and Child Development Outcomes across Early Childhood and Adolescence: Doubly Robust Estimation with Machine Learning," IZA Discussion Papers 17080, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. María Fernanda Rosales, 2014. "Impact of Early Life Shocks on Human Capital Formation: El Niño Floods in Ecuador," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 87693, Inter-American Development Bank.
    7. Elisabetta De Cao, 2015. "The Height Production Function from Birth to Age Two," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(3), pages 329-363.
    8. Anna Aizer & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2019. "Grandparents, Mothers, or Fathers? Why Children of Teen Mothers do Worse in Life," Working Papers 201908, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    9. Bidisha Mandal & Brian Roe & Sara Fein, 2014. "Work and breastfeeding decisions are jointly determined for higher socioeconomic status US mothers," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 237-257, June.
    10. Clive R. Belfield & Inas Rashad Kelly, 2012. "The Benefits of Breast Feeding across the Early Years of Childhood," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(3), pages 251-277.
    11. Boulier, Bryan & Emran, M. Shahe & Hoque, Nazmul, 2021. "Access to Credit, Education, and Women’s Say in the Household: Evidence from Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 109009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Nicholas W Papageorge & Kevin Thom, 2020. "Genes, Education, and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 1351-1399.
    13. Jason M. Fletcher, 2011. "Long‐term effects of health investments and parental favoritism: the case of breastfeeding," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(11), pages 1349-1361, November.
    14. Li, Wenchao, 2021. "The “miseries” of sex imbalance: Evidence using subjective well-being data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    15. George Wehby, 2014. "Breastfeeding and Child Disability: A Comparison of Siblings from the United States," NBER Working Papers 19940, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Emla Fitzsimons & Marcos Vera-Hernandez, 2013. "Food for Thought? Breastfeeding and Child Development," IFS Working Papers W13/31, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    17. Sreevidya Ayyar & Uta Bolt & Eric French & Cormac O'Dea, 2024. "Imagine your life at 25: Gender conformity and later-life outcomes," IFS Working Papers W24/32, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    18. Anna Aizer & Paul Devereux & Kjell Salvanes, 2022. "Grandparents, Moms, or Dads? Why Children of Teen Mothers Do Worse in Life," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(6), pages 2012-2047.
    19. Bobby W. Chung & Jian Zou, 2023. "Understanding spillover of peer parental education: Randomization evidence and mechanisms," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(3), pages 496-522, July.
    20. Okunade, Albert & Osmani, Ahmad Reshad & Ayangbayi, Toluwalope & Okunade, Adeyinka Kevin, 2021. "Children’s Health Capital Investment: Effects of U.S. Infant Breastfeeding on Teenage Obesity," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(4), pages 1-15.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2016-09. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/delsuus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.