Family Asthma and Maternal Labor Supply

Abstract

This paper uses nationally representative data from two large householdsurveys to investigate the extent to which child asthma affects maternal labor supply. Thetheoretical and empirical models take into account the fact that asthma prevalence ispartially influenced by genetic and environmental traits affecting both mothers and theirchildren. The results produce three main conclusions. First, having asthma reduces theprobability of employment among single mothers by approximately 8 to 13 percentagepoints. Second, to the extent that child asthma reduces maternal employment, these effectsare mostly due to reductions in part time work. Third, the effects of maternal asthma onlabor supply are larger in magnitude than the effects of child asthma (I10, J13, J22)