Birth Order Matters: The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Educational Attainment
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Booth, Alison L.
Kee, Hiau Joo
Abstract / Description
We use unique retrospective family background data from the 2003 British Household Panel Survey to explore the degree to which family size and birth order affect a child's subsequent educational attainment. Theory suggests a trade off between child quantity and 'quality'. Family size might adversely affect the production of child quality within a family. A number of arguments also suggest that siblings are unlikely to receive equal shares of the resources
devoted by parents to their children's education. We construct a composite birth order index that effectively purges family size from birth order and use this to test if siblings are assigned equal shares in the family's educational resources. We find that they are not, and that the shares are decreasing with birth order. Controlling for parental family income, parental age at birth and family level attributes, we find that children from larger families have lower levels of education and that there is in addition a separate negative birth order effect. In contrast to Black, Devereux and Kelvanes (2005), the family size effect does not vanish once we control for birth order. Our findings are robust to a number of specification checks.
Keyword(s)
Geschwisterreihe Familiengröße Erziehung Geschwisterreihe Familiengröße Erziehung family size birth order educationPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2005
Is part of series
Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit/ Institute for the Study of Labor: IZA Discussion Paper Series;1713
Citation
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dp1713.pdfAdobe PDF - 595.49KBMD5: 185f5220b4d58276d2e470282e83e35d
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There are no other versions of this object.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Booth, Alison L.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Kee, Hiau Joo
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2022-11-17T11:01:17Z
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Made available on2008-06-06
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Made available on2015-12-01T10:32:12Z
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Made available on2022-11-17T11:01:17Z
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Date of first publication2005
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Abstract / DescriptionWe use unique retrospective family background data from the 2003 British Household Panel Survey to explore the degree to which family size and birth order affect a child's subsequent educational attainment. Theory suggests a trade off between child quantity and 'quality'. Family size might adversely affect the production of child quality within a family. A number of arguments also suggest that siblings are unlikely to receive equal shares of the resources devoted by parents to their children's education. We construct a composite birth order index that effectively purges family size from birth order and use this to test if siblings are assigned equal shares in the family's educational resources. We find that they are not, and that the shares are decreasing with birth order. Controlling for parental family income, parental age at birth and family level attributes, we find that children from larger families have lower levels of education and that there is in addition a separate negative birth order effect. In contrast to Black, Devereux and Kelvanes (2005), the family size effect does not vanish once we control for birth order. Our findings are robust to a number of specification checks.en
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Persistent Identifierhttps://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bsz:291-psydok-16621
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11780/1107
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.8867
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Language of contenteng
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Is part ofIZA Discussion Paper Series No. 1713
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Is part of seriesForschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit/ Institute for the Study of Labor: IZA Discussion Paper Series;1713
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Keyword(s)Geschwisterreihede
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Keyword(s)Familiengrößede
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Keyword(s)Erziehungde
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Keyword(s)Geschwisterreihede
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Keyword(s)Familiengrößede
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Keyword(s)Erziehungde
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Keyword(s)family sizeen
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Keyword(s)birth orderen
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Keyword(s)educationen
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleBirth Order Matters: The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Educational Attainmenten
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DRO typereport
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Visible tag(s)PsyDok