New Results on the Effect of Mothers’ Working Hours on Children’s Overweight Status

During the last 30 years almost all developed countries have experienced an increase in the number of overweight children. Existing empirical research derives mainly from the U.S., Canada, Australia and the UK, and points at maternal employment as an explanation for the increasing trend in child weight. This paper uses the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Children (DALSC) merged with Danish register data from 1995 to 2002 to explore whether a causal relationship exists between maternal working hours and Danish children’s overweight status at age 7½. The instrumental variables technique is used in exploring possible bias due to omitted variable bias. In contrast to the existing literature this paper shows that an increase in mothers’ working hours has a reducing effect on child weight. Subgroup analyses on formal and informal daycare suggest that the quality of childcare determines the effect, as results show that maternal employment has a reducing effect on children’s overweight status in formal daycare (kindergarten). For children in informal daycare (family daycare), maternal employment has no significant effect.