Rank at Work, Health in Pregnancy: Workplace Social Status and Maternal Health (with Lavetti, K.)
Abstract
The majority of mothers remain employed during pregnancy, yet little is known about how workplace status shapes maternal health. While prior research has focused on socioeconomic status—such as income, education, and neighborhood—we study workplace social status, measured by a mother’s within-firm percentile rank, using a unique administrative linkage between statewide health claims and employment records from Utah. Leveraging this rich dataset, we control for household income, geography, insurance coverage, and firm-specific characteristics, allowing us to isolate the role of a mother’s workplace rank during pregnancy. We find that higher within-firm rank is associated with improved maternal health: moving from the 10th to the 90th percentile within a firm reduces the mean number of maternal conditions by roughly 8.4 percent, or about 37 fewer conditions per 1,000 births. Additional analyses show that a father’s workplace rank does not mitigate the relationship between a mother’s rank and her own health outcomes. These findings demonstrate that workplace dynamics, beyond absolute household income, play a critical role in shaping acute maternal health risks during pregnancy.
Working Papers
The Invisible Costs of School Shootings: Impacts on Parents' Mental Health and Children's Education Expectations Nabors, Y. (updated February 2024)
Wage Gap and Disability Types Nabors, Y.
Works in Progress
More Than Just Mom: Cascading Effects of the Child Penalty (with Rossin-Slater, M., Lavetti, K., and Araya, D.)
Publications
Student Satisfaction with Broadband in Higher Education (with DiFurio, F.) Conditional Acceptance, International Journal of Higher Education