Parental Educational Investment and Children's Academic Risk: Estimates of the Impact of Sibship Size and Birth Order from Exogenous Variations in Fertility
40 Pages Posted: 7 Jun 2005 Last revised: 20 Nov 2022
Date Written: May 2005
Abstract
The stylized fact that individuals who come from families with more children are disadvantaged in the schooling process has been one of the most robust effects in human capital and stratification research over the last few decades. For example, Featherman and Hauser (1978: 242-243) estimate that each additional brother or sister costs respondents on the order of a fifth of a year of schooling. However, more recent analyses suggest that the detrimental effects of sibship size on children's educational achievement might be spurious. We extend these recent analyses of spuriousness versus causality using a different method and a different set of outcome measures. We suggest an instrumental variable approach to estimate the effect of sibship size on children's private school attendance and on their likelihood of being held back in school. Specifically, we deploy the sex-mix instrument used by Angrist and Evans (1998). Analyses of educational data from the 1990 PUMS five percent sample reveal that children from larger families are less likely to attend private school and are more likely to be held back in school. Our estimates are smaller than traditional OLS estimates, but are nevertheless greater than zero. Most interesting is the fact that the effect of sibship size is uniformly strongest for latter-born children and zero for first born children.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Children and Their Parents' Labor Supply: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size
-
Child Endowments, and the Quantity and Quality of Children
By Gary S. Becker and Nigel Tomes
-
The Demand for Sons: Evidence from Divorce, Fertility, and Shotgun Marriage
By Gordon B. Dahl and Enrico Moretti
-
Are Brothers Really Better? Sibling Sex Composition and Educational Achievement Revisited
-
The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Composition on Children's Education
By Sandra E. Black, Paul J. Devereux, ...
-
The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Composition on Children's Education
By Sandra E. Black, Paul J. Devereux, ...
-
The Effects of Sons and Daughters on Men's Labor Supply and Wages
By Shelly J. Lundberg and Elaina Rose
-
Birth Order Matters: The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Educational Attainment
By Alison L. Booth and Hiau Looi Kee
-
Birth Order Matters: The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Educational Attainment
By Alison L. Booth and Hiau Joo Kee
-
The Effects of Overcrowded Housing on Children's Performance at School
By Dominique Goux and Eric Maurin