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http://hdl.handle.net/11375/27610
Title: | Three Essays on the Economics of Child Well-Being |
Authors: | Wei, Lan |
Advisor: | Veall, Michael |
Department: | Economics |
Keywords: | Child well-being;Health economics |
Publication Date: | 2019 |
Abstract: | This thesis consists of three major essays that respectively investigate three factors that might influence child well-being: family income, family structure, and time spent in child care. Using the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), the first essay finds that income-based gaps in child health are statistically significant, quantitatively meaningful, and more pronounced as children age. Contrary to previous U.S. evidence, the observed income gradient in child health cannot be attributed to the protective effects of income on the incidence and severity of children’s health problems at birth and chronic conditions. This contrast may reflect the effects of universal health insurance in Canada. An instrumental variable estimator predicts a stronger causal effect of income on child health than does OLS. Also using the NLSCY, the second essay indicates that children persistently living in single-parent families have poorer health and educational outcomes compared to children persistently living in intact families. In addition, children whose parents separate during a given period exhibit worse health and educational outcomes compared to children whose parents remain together. Using a sibling fixed-effect approach substantially reduces the associations between children’s outcomes and parental separation predicted by OLS, but several gaps, especially in mental health, remain statistically significant and quantitatively meaningful. Using time-use data taken from the General Social Survey (GSS), the third essay finds that parental time spent in child care continuously and dramatically increased in Canada between 1986 and 2010. The increase in average time spent in child care applied to all gender and education groups but was associated with a growing dispersion in child care time. While more highly educated parents are more likely to spend time in child care, the education-based gaps in child care time are found to decline. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/11375/27610 |
Appears in Collections: | Open Access Dissertations and Theses |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Wei_Lan_finalsubmission2019May_PhD.pdf | 2.22 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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