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
bfawho2007.dta	application/x-stata	5.9 KB	03/20/2021 08:30:AM
hfawho2007.dta	application/x-stata	4.9 KB	03/20/2021 08:30:AM
readme_stata.pdf	application/pdf	62.3 KB	03/20/2021 08:30:AM
survey_2007_prev.xls	application/vnd.ms-excel	35 KB	03/20/2021 08:30:AM
survey_2007_z.dta	application/x-stata	223.2 KB	03/20/2021 08:30:AM
survey_2007_z.xls	text/plain	150.4 KB	03/20/2021 08:30:AM
survey_who2007.do	text/x-stata-syntax	1.7 KB	03/20/2021 08:30:AM
survey_who2007.dta	application/x-stata	31.8 KB	03/20/2021 08:30:AM
wfawho2007.dta	application/x-stata	2.7 KB	03/20/2021 08:30:AM
who2007.ado	text/plain	43.2 KB	03/20/2021 08:30:AM

Project Description

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.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Breastfeeding; Child development; instrumental variables; cognitive development; socio-emotional development; health status; hospital care

JEL Classification:
      I14 Health and Inequality
      I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
      J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

Geographic Coverage: Great Britain

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): program source code

Methodology

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: Individuals

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V1 [2023-09-28]

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