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Maternal Employment During Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes: Evidence From Danish Siblings

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  • Miriam Wüst
Abstract
I use Danish survey and administrative data to examine the impact of maternal employment during pregnancy on birth outcomes. As healthier mothers are more likely to work and health shocks to mothers may impact employment and birth outcomes, I combine two strategies: First, I control extensively for time‐varying factors that may correlate with employment and birth outcomes, such as pre‐pregnancy family income and maternal occupation, pregnancy‐related health shocks, maternal sick listing, and health behaviors (smoking and alcohol consumption). Second, to account for remaining time‐invariant heterogeneity between mothers, I compare outcomes of mothers’ consecutive children. Mothers who work during the first pregnancy trimester have a lower risk of preterm birth. I find no effect on the probability of having a baby of small size for gestational age. To rule out that health selection of mothers between pregnancies drives the results, I focus on mothers whose change in employment status is likely not to be driven by underlying health (mothers who are students in one of their pregnancies and mothers with closely spaced births). Given generous welfare benefits and strict workplace regulations in Denmark, my findings support a residual explanation, namely, that exclusion from employment may stress mothers in countries with high‐female employment rates. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Miriam Wüst, 2015. "Maternal Employment During Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes: Evidence From Danish Siblings," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(6), pages 711-725, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:24:y:2015:i:6:p:711-725
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.3056
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    Cited by:

    1. Hope Corman & Dhaval Dave & Nancy E. Reichman, 2018. "Evolution of the Infant Health Production Function," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(1), pages 6-47, July.
    2. Ahammer, Alexander & Halla, Martin & Schneeweis, Nicole, 2020. "The effect of prenatal maternity leave on short and long-term child outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    3. Shirlee Lichtman-Sadot & Neta Benshalom-Tirosh & Eyal Sheiner, 2020. "Conflict, Rockets, and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from Israel’s Operation Protective Edge," Working Papers 2009, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    4. Shooshan Danagoulian & Derek Jenkins, 2021. "Rolling back the gains: Maternal stress undermines pregnancy health after Flint's water switch," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 564-584, March.
    5. Lichtman-Sadot, Shirlee & Benshalom-Tirosh, Neta & Sheiner, Eyal, 2020. "Conflict, Rockets, and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from Israel's Operation Protective Edge," IZA Discussion Papers 13394, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Stefano Cellini & Livia Menezes & Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner, 2022. "Maternal Displacements during Pregnancy and the Health of Newborns," Discussion Papers 22-02, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    7. Bellés-Obrero, Cristina & Cabrales, Antonio & Jiménez-Martín, Sergi & Vall-Castelló, Judit, 2023. "Women’s education, fertility and children’ health during a gender equalization process: Evidence from a child labor reform in Spain," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    8. Regmi, Krishna & Wang, Le, 2022. "Maternity Leave," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1184, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

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