Code and Results for: Breastfeeding and Child Development

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Emla Fitzsimons, UCL Institute of Education; Marcos Vera-Hernandez, University College London

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  Dofiles 05/27/2021 12:56:PM
  Graphs 03/20/2021 12:31:PM
  HES 03/20/2021 12:31:PM
  Logfiles 03/20/2021 12:33:PM
  Montecarlo 03/20/2021 12:33:PM
  Outputs 03/20/2021 12:34:PM
  Outputs_H 03/20/2021 12:34:PM
  WHO_igrowup 03/20/2021 12:35:PM
  ado 03/20/2021 12:35:PM
  who2007_stata 03/20/2021 12:35:PM

Project Citation: 

Fitzsimons, Emla, and Vera-Hernandez, Marcos. Code and Results for: Breastfeeding and Child Development . Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2023. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-09-28. https://doi.org/10.3886/E135401V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary We show that children who are born at or just before the weekend are less likely to be breastfed, owing to poorer breastfeeding support services in hospitals at weekends. We use this variation to estimate the effect of breastfeeding on children’s development in the first seven years of life, for a sample of births of low educated mothers. We find large effects of breastfeeding on children’s cognitive development, with much weaker evidence of effects on non-cognitive development, and no effects on health during the period of childhood we consider. Regarding mechanisms, we study how breastfeeding affects parental investments in the child and the quality of the mother-child relationship.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources European Research Council (695300-HKADeC-ERC-2015-AdG); Economic and Social Research Council (United Kingdom) (ES/H021221/1)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms Breastfeeding; Child development; instrumental variables; cognitive development; socio-emotional development; health status; hospital care
JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      I14 Health and Inequality
      I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
      J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Great Britain
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2000 – 2008
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2000 – 2008
Universe:  View help for Universe Children born between 1 September 2000 and 31 August 2001 in England and Wales, and between 22 November 2000 and 11 January 2002 in Scotland.
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) program source code

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source
University of London. UCL Social Research Institute. 2001. ‘Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Millennium Cohort Study: First Survey, 2001-2003; Second Survey, 2003-2004, Third Survey 2006, Fourth Survey 2008 [Computer File]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive [Distributor]’. 2008 2001.

Healthcare Commission, Picker Institute Europe. 2009. ‘Maternity Survey, 2007. [Data Collection]. 3rd Edition.’ UK Data Service. SN: 5785.

NHS Digital. n.d. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Individuals

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Published Versions

V1 [2023-09-28]

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