We use panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to examine how body weight changes with age for a cohort moving through early adulthood, to investigate how the age-obesity gradient differs with socioeconomic status (SES) and to study channels for these SES disparities....

More mothers engage in marketplace work today than ever before, with over 33% returning to work by the time their child is 3 months old. This article identifies the effects of maternal marketplace work in the initial months of an infant's life on the child's cognitive development. Results...

With over 66 % of Americans overweight, expectant mothers are unusual because they are encouraged to gain weight while pregnant. Food stamp receipt (FSR) may facilitate recommended weight gain for pregnant women by providing additional resources for food and nutrition. I examine the effects of...

Poverty has historically been associated with a decrease in food consumption. This at least partially changed in 1964 when the Food Stamp Act began guaranteeing food for those in poverty. Since the Act’s passage, the prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically, particularly among those...

Before 1996, households were typically ineligible for welfare if they had assets worth more than $1,000, where $1,500 from each vehicle’s value was excluded from this determination. However, the 1996 welfare reform act began allowing states to increase their asset limits and vehicle...

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, 12 states and the District of Columbia passed maternity leave legislation (MLL) allowing mothers a period of leave from work after childbirth. In 1993, President Clinton signed the first piece of federal MLL, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Similar to...

The rapid growth in obesity represents a major public concern. Although body weight tends to increase with age, the evolution of obesity over the lifecycle is not well understood. We use longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine how body weight changes with age...