TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cawley,John
AU  - Liu,Feng
TI  - Maternal Employment and Childhood Obesity: A Search for Mechanisms in Time Use Data
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13600
PY  - 2007
Y2  - November 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13600
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13600.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John Cawley
3M24 MVR Hall
Department of Policy Analysis and Management
and Department of Economics
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853
Tel: 607/255-0952
Fax: 607/255-4071
E-Mail: jhc38@cornell.edu

Feng Liu
Zhongshan University
E-Mail: cnliufeng@gmail.com
AB  - Recent research has found that maternal employment is associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity. This paper explores mechanisms for that correlation. We estimate models of instrumental variables using a unique dataset, the American Time Use Survey, that measure the effect of maternal employment on the mother’s allocation of time to activities related to child diet and physical activity. We find that employed women spend significantly less time cooking, eating with their children, and playing with their children, and are more likely to purchase prepared foods. We find suggestive evidence that these decreases in time are only partly offset by husbands and partners. These findings offer plausible mechanisms for the association of maternal employment with childhood obesity.
ER  -