Toddlers, Preschoolers and Adolescents with Asthma? Age-specific Effects of Children’s Health on Mothers’ Labor Supply and Wages

There is growing evidence that children’s poor health can affect mothers’ labor market outcomes, however, most of the literature on children’s health has focused on disability or general health status. This study focuses on one of the leading chronic diseases in children, asthma, and it investigates (i) the effects of having an asthmatic child on mothers’ labor supply and wages; (ii) whether there are age-specific differences on the effects of child health on mothers’ labor market outcomes, and (iii) whether the effects differ between single mothers and mothers with partners. This study uses the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for U.S. households with children 0-17 years old from 1996 to 2002, and controls for mothers’ unobserved heterogeneity and sample selectivity. The results suggest that the effects differ by the age group of the ill child, and between single mothers and mothers with partners. In particular, single mothers, and mothers with asthmatic preschool children or asthmatic adolescents are the most affected groups.