Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/91544 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IFS Working Papers No. W13/31
Publisher: 
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London
Abstract: 
We show that children who are born at the weekend or just before are less likely to be breastfed, owing to poorer breastfeeding support services at weekends. We use this variation to estimate the effect of breastfeeding on children's development for a sample of uncomplicated births from low educated mothers. We find that breastfeeding has large effects on children's cognitive development, but not on non-cognitive development or health. Regarding mechanisms, we estimate how breastfeeding affects parental investments in the child and the quality of the mother-child relationship.
Subjects: 
Breastfeeding
timing of birth
hospital support
instrumental variables
optimal instruments
cognitive and non-cognitive development
health
JEL: 
I14
I18
J13
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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