1,721,172 research outputs found
The effects of parental leave on child health and postnatal care: Evidence from Australia
Full text linkOne of the arguments that is advanced in support of paid maternity leave policies is that the mother’s time away from work, around childbirth, is expected to improve child health and development. However the research evidence on these links is scarce and, until recently, little was known about the link, if any, between child health and parental leave in particular. Using an extended random effects estimator to control for selection bias and unobserved heterogeneity, we employ micro-level data from the Parental Leave in Australia Survey, which is a nested survey of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, to examine the effects of parental leave on measures of child health and the provision of health inputs to the child. We found that parental leave around childbirth was significantly associated with prolonged breastfeeding, up-to-date immunisation and other positive effects on some chronic health conditions such as asthma, bronchiolitis. For example, children of mothers who took an additional week of paid maternity leave have a lower probability of having asthma and bronchiolitis (1.1 and 0.5 percentage points less likely, respectively). They are also slightly more likely to be breastfed until one month and 6 months of age (2.1 and 0.6 percentage points, respectively)
What roles do contemporaneous and cumulative incomes play in the income-child health gradient for young children? Evidence from an Australian Panel
No full textThe literature to date shows that children from poorer households tend to have worse health than their peers, and the gap between them grows with age. We investigate whether and how health shocks (as measured by the onset of chronic conditions) contribute to the income-child health gradient and whether the contemporaneous or cumulative effects of income play important mitigating roles. We exploit a rich panel dataset with three panel waves called the Longitudinal Study of Australian children. Given the availability of three waves of data, we are able to apply a range of econometric techniques (e.g. fixed and random effects) to control for unobserved heterogeneity. The paper makes several contributions to the extant literature. First, it shows that an apparent income gradient becomes relatively attenuated in our dataset when the cumulative and contemporaneous effects of household income are distinguished econometrically. Second, it demonstrates that the income-child health gradient becomes statistically insignificant when controlling for parental health and health-related behaviours or unobserved heterogeneity
Child Health and the Income Gradient: Evidence from Australia
Full text linkThe positive relationship between household income and child health is well documented in the child health literature but the precise mechanisms via which income generates better health and whether the income gradient is increasing in child age are not well understood. This paper presents new Australian evidence on the child health-income gradient. We use data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian (LSAC), which involved two waves of data collection for children born between March 2003 and February 2004 (B-Cohort), and between March 1999 and February 2000 (K-Cohort). This data set allows us to test the robustness of some of the findings of the influential studies of Case et al. (2002) and J.Currie and Stabile (2003), and a recent study by A.Currie et al. (2007) , using a sample of Australian children. The richness of the LSAC data set also allows us to conduct further exploration of the determinants of child health. Our results reveal an increasing income gradient by child age using similar covariates to Case et al. (2002). However, the income gradient disappears if we include a rich set of controls. Our results indicate that parental health and, in particular, the mother's health plays a significant role, reducing the income coefficient to zero. Thus, our results for Australian children are similar to those produced by Propper et al. (2007) on their British child cohort. We also find some evidence that higher incomes have a protective effect when health shocks do arise: for several chronic conditions, children from higher-income households are less likely to be reported as being in poor health than children from lower-income households who have the same chronic conditions. The latter result is similar to some recent findings by Condliffe and Link (2008) on a sample of US children
Does school type affect cognitive and non-cognitive development in children? Evidence from Australian primary schools
Full text linkThis paper investigates the effects of primary school choices on cognitive and non-cognitive development in children using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). We militate against the measurement problems that are associated with individual unobserved heterogeneity by exploiting the richness of LSAC data and applying contemporary econometric approaches. We find that sending children to Catholic or other independent primary schools has no significant effect on their cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. The literature now has evidence from three different continents that the returns to attending Catholic primary schools are no different than public schools
The effects of microfinance on women's empowerment: New evidence from Bangladesh
No full textPrevious literature has produced inconclusive evidence on the link between microcredit and women’s empowerment. This study, therefore, has re-visited the issue by conducting a household survey in the 4 districts of Bangladesh to examine whether microcredit is really empowering. In doing so, we have done a thorough review of the previous literature. Our results from the logistic regression indicate that microfinance has actually increased women’s empowerment in Bangladesh. We have found positive impact of most of the selected indicators on women’s empowerment. However, for achieving full benefit of microfinance in empowering women it must be supplemented by a significant amount of skills training and educational opportunities for these poor women and intensive awareness campaigns with an integrated approach
Child health and schooling achievement in Bangladesh
No full textPurpose: This paper examines the impact of child health (measured by nutritional status) on schooling performance of Bangladeshi children.
Design/methodology/approach: The data set used in this study comes from a survey titled 'Micronutrient and Gender Study (MNGS) in Bangladesh'. The survey was administered by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). We control for the potential endogeneity of child health by an instrumental variables approach. Our results indicate that the impact of child health on school achievement will be overestimated if endogeneity of child health is ignored.
Findings: Our results reveal that child health has significant effects on school enrolment and grade attainment, although it does not affect current school attendance. The impact of child health is stronger for school enrolment compared to grade attainment.
Originality/value: This study improves our understanding on the relationship between child health and schooling in several ways. First, we control for the potential endogeneity of child health by an instrumental variables approach. Our chosen instrumental variables (i.e., heights of father and mother) are strong predictors of child health, and satisfy the validity test. Second, this study examines the effects of child health on wide ranges of schooling measures: enrolment, attendance and attainment
Child Labour in Bangladesh: Trends, Patterns and Policy Options
Full text linkThis study examines the trends, patterns and policy options of child labour in Bangladesh particularly during the 1990s. The striking finding in the trend and incidence of child labour in Bangladesh is that while child labour is on a declining trend in other South Asian countries – India and Pakistan and in the world, it has been increasing in Bangladesh. This increasing trend in the incidence of child labour particularly focuses on the irrelevance or inadequacy of existing child labour laws in Bangladesh. This study suggests that a combination of policies would be appropriate for reducing child labour. These include employment generation schemes that lead to economic prosperity for the household, compulsory schooling for children, school enrolment subsidy, improving school infrastructure, the quality of education, flexibility in school schedules and adult literacy campaigns that increase community or social awareness, especially of the adult female.
Child Labour in Bangladesh: Trends, Patterns and Policy Options
Full text linkThis study examines the trends, patterns and policy options of child labour in Bangladesh particularly during the 1990s. The striking finding in the trend and incidence of child labour in Bangladesh is that while child labour is on a declining trend in other South Asian countries – India and Pakistan and in the world, it has been increasing in Bangladesh. This increasing trend in the incidence of child labour particularly focuses on the irrelevance or inadequacy of existing child labour laws in Bangladesh. This study suggests that a combination of policies would be appropriate for reducing child labour. These include employment generation schemes that lead to economic prosperity for the household, compulsory schooling for children, school enrolment subsidy, improving school infrastructure, the quality of education, flexibility in school schedules and adult literacy campaigns that increase community or social awareness, especially of the adult female
8th Spring Meeting of Young Economists
Full text linkThis paper uses data from Bangladesh to examine the determinants of child labour and schooling. The theoretical framework adopted in this paper is a standard household production model that analyses the joint allocation of time within the household. Using Multinomial logit model, we then jointly estimate the determinants of schooling and working, combining schooling and work, or doing nothing for 5-17 year old children. Multinomial logit results show that the education of parents significantly increases the probability that a school-age child will specialise in study. Empirical results further show that if the father is employed in a vulnerable occupation, for example, day-labour or wage-labour, it raises the probability that a
child will work full time or combine work and study. The presence of very young children (ages 0-4) in the household increases the likelihood that a school-age child will combine study with work. The significant and positive gender coefficient suggests that girls are more likely than boys to combine schooling with work. The children who are sons and daughters of the household-head, as opposed to being relatives living in the household are more likely to
specialise in schooling or combine schooling with work
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