This paper enriches the literature on the debate regarding the relationship between maternal employment and child malnutrition. Some argue that maternal employment is associated with an increase in child malnutrition, while others contend that it leads to a decrease in child malnutrition. The debate centers on the trade-off between time spent working versus caring for children (substitution effect) and the income gained from employment (income effect). The substitution and income effects have opposite impacts on child malnutrition. The substitution effect may increase child malnutrition, while the income effect may reduce it. This paper contributes new empirical evidence of the association between maternal employment and child malnutrition, measured with stunting and wasting in Indonesia, where child malnutrition remains one of the challenges in development. It addresses potential endogeneity concerns through the use of the IV-2SLS approach and utilizes data from the 2021 ‘Indonesian Nutrition Status Study’ data, a nationally representative survey noteworthy for its anthropometric data. It concludes that maternal employment is related to lower malnutrition indicating that the income effect is greater than the substitution effect. Policymakers can therefore focus on improvements in infrastructure, including healthcare facilities and community education, as they are essential and needed to increase women's income.
Pratiwi et al. (Tue,) studied this question.