This paper investigates whether the availability of breastfeeding facilities at the workplace helps to reconcile breastfeeding and work commitments, and whether it has beneficial effects for the health of the child. Using data from the UK Infant Feeding Survey, we find that the availability of breastfeeding facilities at work is associated with longer breastfeeding durations for all women and shorter maternity leave spells for higher educated women. We also find that children born to mothers whose employer offers breastfeeding facilities experience significantly fewer sickness in the first 6 months of life.

The United States' postwar period has seen an increase in aggregate market hours worked, a decline in home production hours, and an increase in the consumption to output ratio. A multisector growth model that allows for an increase in total factor productivity in the market sector relative to the home sector can account for these phenomena. Households shift hours to the more productive market sector and purchase measured market goods in favor of unmeasured home goods. This channel accounts for a quarter of the increase in the consumption to output ratio observed in the data from 1950 to 2007.