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Unplanned Pregnancy And The Impact On Sibling Health Outcomes

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  • Grace Lordan
  • Paul Frijters

Abstract

This work considers whether planning matters with respect to the effect of a new sibling on another siblings' health. Objective health outcomes are observed before and after a new addition to the family. To date, the literature on family size has focused on a quality–quantity trade‐off; the more children in a family, the less resources devoted to each child. We present a theoretical framework which highlights that the quantity–quality trade‐off may only be relevant in the case of an unplanned sibling. We also suggest that a planned sibling may result in health gains for the other children. We use two waves of data for more than 1800 children from Peru from the Young Lives Project to test our hypothesis. The data relate to the children at 1 and 5 years. For health outcomes, height for age and weight for age Z are considered. The results highlight significant negative independent effects on height for age when an unplanned sibling is added to the household. In addition, we find positive sibling effects on height for age when a planned sibling arrives. We find only small planning effects for weight for age. We view our hypothesis as a pathway that can further explain the quantity–quality trade‐off. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Grace Lordan & Paul Frijters, 2013. "Unplanned Pregnancy And The Impact On Sibling Health Outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(8), pages 903-914, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:22:y:2013:i:8:p:903-914
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.2866
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    2. Pawlowski, Tim & Schüttoff, Ute & Downward, Paul & Lechner, Michael, 2014. "Children’s skill formation in less developed countries – The impact of sports participation," Economics Working Paper Series 1412, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    3. Tim Pawlowski & Ute Schüttoff & Paul Downward & Michael Lechner, 2018. "Can Sport Really Help to Meet the Millennium Development Goals? Evidence From Children in Peru," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(4), pages 498-521, May.
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    5. Zhou, Ying & Jia, Nan & Yang, Tianchi, 2021. "The quantity–quality trade-off related to investment in healthy human capital: New evidence from the implementation of the “selective two-child policy” in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Qin, Xuezheng & Zhuang, Castiel Chen & Yang, Rudai, 2017. "Does the one-child policy improve children's human capital in urban China? A regression discontinuity design," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 287-303.

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