The Effect of Maternal Work Conditions on Child Development

This study goes beyond the much-studied impact of mothers' labor force participation on children's development and investigates how mothers' working environment affects children's cognitive and non-cognitive performance. Using data from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the Occupational Information Network and applying a value added plus specification we find a negative impact of the hazards involved in mothers' jobs on their children’s non-cognitive achievement, but not on their cognitive performance. Nevertheless, stratification according to mothers' verbal skills reveals that only the personality development of children of mothers with high verbal skills is affected. Upon further investigation,we find that a possible mechanism through which maternal work conditions affect child outcomes is through reduced mother-child interactions