IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ctl/louvde/v85y2019i1p71-94.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

First Come, First Served? Birth Order Effects on Child Height in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Rajan BISHWAKARMA

    (University of New Mexico)

  • Kira M. VILLA

    (University of New Mexico)

Abstract

We examine the birth order effects on health status for a sample of children aged 1–18 years in South Africa. Using a mother fixed-effects specification, we observe children's height-for-age z-score decreases with birth order. We investigate potential mechanisms underlying the birth order effect including those related to biology, parental preferences, and resource dilution. We also look at whether these effects are due to selection into families of different sizes. We find that the magnitude of the effect is larger in poorer and rural households and in larger families – suggesting that the birth order effect is largely due to resource dilution in economically constrained households.

Suggested Citation

  • Rajan BISHWAKARMA & Kira M. VILLA, 2019. "First Come, First Served? Birth Order Effects on Child Height in South Africa," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(1), pages 71-94, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvde:v:85:y:2019:i:1:p:71-94
    DOI: 10.1017/dem.2018.23
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/dem.2018.23
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1017/dem.2018.23?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Birth order; Child health; Developing country; Resource dilution; South Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ctl:louvde:v:85:y:2019:i:1:p:71-94. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sebastien SCHILLINGS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iruclbe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.