Exploring the good mother hypothesis: Do child outcomes vary with the mother's share of income?

We explore the relationship between child outcomes and the source of family income using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. The good mother hypothesis asserts that consumption of child-specific goods and child well-being may be superior in families in which mothers have greater control over economic resources. The least squares and logit estimates do not indicate that child activities and cognitive and behavioural/emotional outcomes are associated with the mother's share of income, but the fixed effects models provide some evidence of modest effects.

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