The effect of child disability on maternal labour

Event Date: 27 January 2016

Time: 4.15pm

Location: Strathclyde Business School, Cathedral Wing CW404b

Speaker: Vincent O'Sullivan, Lancaster University

Abstract: We analyse two cohorts of Growing Up in Ireland, a large dataset of young Irish children and their parents. For a cohort of nine-month old infants, whose mothers have partners, we find that if the infant is ill, the mother reduces her labour supply. For single mothers, having an infant with an illness does not affect their labour supply. For the mothers of nine-year-old children who have an illness or disability, we found no effects for non-single mothers. We found only weak evidence of a negative effect of child illness on the labour supply of single mothers. Instead, for the cohort of children, we found that poor academic performance has a stronger effect than child health on the labour supply of the mother.

Published: 26 January 2016