Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/242560 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
Economics Working Paper Series No. 2018/04
Publisher: 
Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, Auckland
Abstract: 
We study the effect of mothers' smoking during pregnancy on children's body weight outcomes during pre-school ages using a nationally representative sample of children surveyed in NLSY79 Children and Young Adults. Exploiting 'within mother and across pregnancies' variation in smoking behavior, we find that maternal smoking during pregnancy has a negative effect on weight outcomes at birth but the children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy catch up with the children of non-smokers, usually within their first-year post birth. We also find evidence to suggest that children of smokers in later pre-school ages (3 to 5 years old) are likely to have higher weight outcomes relative to children of non-smokers when their mother reported higher intensity levels of smoking (greater than one pack per day).
Subjects: 
Maternal smoking
Children's health outcomes
child weight
child BMI
JEL: 
I10
I12
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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