This dissertation explores issues on women’s employment and children’s health in economics. In chapter I, I investigate the causal effects of maternal employment on childhood obesity. Empirical analysis of the effects of maternal employment on childhood obesity is complicated by the endogeneity of mother’s labor supply. A mother’s decision to work likely reflects underlying factors – such as ability and motivation – that could directly influence child health outcomes. To address this concern, this study implements an instrumental variables (IV) strategy which utilizes exogenous variation in maternal employment coming from the youngest sibling’s school eligibility. With data on children ages 7-17 from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth linked to the Child Supplement, I explore the effects of maternal employment on children’s BMI z-score and probabilities of being overweight and obese. OLS estimates indicate a moderate association, consistent with the prior literature. However, the IV estimates show that an increase in mothers’ labor supply leads to large weight gains among children, suggesting that not addressing the endogeneity of maternal employment leads to underestimated causal effects. Chapter II examines the effects of Walmart Supercenters on household and child food insecurity. Walmart Supercenters may reduce food insecurity by lowering food prices and expanding food availability. Our food insecurity-related outcomes come from the 2001-2007 waves of the December Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement. We match these data to our hand-collected data of Walmart Supercenters at the census tract-level. First, we estimate a naïve linear probability model and find that households and children who live near Walmart Supercenters are more likely than others to be food insecure. Since the location of Walmart Supercenters might be endogenous, we then turn to instrumental variables models that utilize the predictable geographic expansion patterns of Walmart Supercenters outward from Walmart’s corporate headquarters. The IV estimates suggest that the causal effect of Walmart Supercenters is to reduce food insecurity among households and children. The effect is largest among low-income families. In the third paper, I investigate the effects of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on women’s labor market outcomes. The FMLA is a federal policy that aims to help workers balance job and family responsibilities. However, it may have unintended consequences on employment because it imposes costs on firms. In this study, I investigate the impact of the FMLA with labor market flows—i.e., hires, separations and recalls. Focusing on labor market flow outcomes is crucial to identifying the immediate impact of the policy because employment and wages adjust slowly when there is a policy change while labor market flows are flexible. Using data from the Quarterly Workforce Indicators and adopting a triple-difference model, I get results that are unlikely to be interpreted as causal because the data are insufficient to obtain precise estimates. However, the idea of using labor market flows can be easily applied to a broad range of topics relate to workplace mandates.

The employment status of persons caring for a child Abstract The content of this thesis is the employment status of persons caring for a child. It is a topic that affects most people, mainly women, as it is a very current issue with a high social importance. Parenthood and childcare have a significant impact on an employee's working life, as the position of these persons under labor law is considerably more difficult and their protection is therefore absolutely essential in this area. The thesis deals in a comprehensive way with individual areas of labor law that are affected by child care. The thesis is concentrating on all phases of child care and according to this the thesis is divided systematically into five chapters. The first chapter analyzes the current legislation not only on national but also international level as well as it analyzes the European Union law. The second chapter is devoted to the working conditions of women during their pregnancy, the third chapter deals with the time after childbirth, such as maternity, the institution of maternity leave and the corresponding benefit of social security law. The rights of the father of the child after childbirth are also taken into account. The fourth chapter deals with parental leave together with parental allowance. The final chapter deals with...

A media policy on maternity leave is the subject matter of the thesis, which presents the results of a qualitative research of an audience by the grounded theory method. The analysis of various causes, conditions, contexts, strategies and consequences of media policies of individual speakers is based on the use of semi-structured interviews. The media usage on maternity leave is a complex of attitudes not only of the mother but also of the father who can be in agreement with his partner in one household but in conflict in another household. Influences of parents childhood or of the nearest neighborhood is continuously reflected in individual strategies of the media policy. A professional status of the mother and her needs offered by the media also plays a significant role. Last but not least, there is a conflict between mothers` own comfort when the media take over the role of a nanny and are a vital member of the household, and a childcare when the mother more or less regulates the role of the media in the early years of a child's life on the basis of her own experience, in other words to a reasonable degree.