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Am I my Brother's Keeper? Sibling Spillover Effects: The Case of Developmental Disabilities and Externalizing Behavior

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  • Jason Fletcher
  • Nicole Hair
  • Barbara Wolfe

Abstract

Using a sample of sibling pairs from the PSID-CDS, we examine the effects of sibling health status on early educational outcomes. We find that sibling developmental disability and externalizing behavior are associated with reductions in math and language achievement. Estimated spillovers for developmental disability are large and robust to both a rich set of family-level controls and a fixed effects analysis that exploits the availability of in-sample cousins. Our results suggest the importance of siblings in the determination of children's human capital as well as the potential for typically uncounted benefits to improving children's health through family multiplier effects.

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  • Jason Fletcher & Nicole Hair & Barbara Wolfe, 2012. "Am I my Brother's Keeper? Sibling Spillover Effects: The Case of Developmental Disabilities and Externalizing Behavior," CEPR Discussion Papers 668, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    • Handle: RePEc:auu:dpaper:668
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    Cited by:

    1. Persson, Petra & Qiu, Xinyao & Rossin-Slater, Maya, 2021. "Family Spillover Effects of Marginal Diagnoses: The Case of ADHD," IZA Discussion Papers 14020, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Persson, Petra & Qiu, Xinyao & Rossin-Slater, Maya, 2021. "Family Spillover Effects of Marginal Diagnoses: The Case of ADHD," CEPR Discussion Papers 15660, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Wolfe, Barbara & Song, Jieun & Greenberg, Jan S. & Mailick, Marsha R., 2014. "Ripple effects of developmental disabilities and mental illness on nondisabled adult siblings," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 1-9.
    4. Crudu, Federico & Neri, Laura & Tiezzi, Silvia, 2021. "Family ties and child obesity in Italy," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    5. Lovén, Ida, 2017. "Labor market consequences of growing up with a sibling with type 1-diabetes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 1-10.
    6. Fletcher, Jason M. & Kim, Jinho, 2019. "The effect of sibship size on non-cognitive Skills: Evidence from natural experiments," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 36-43.
    7. Crudu, Federico & Neri, Laura & Tiezzi, Silvia, 2018. "Family Ties and Children Obesity in Italy," MPRA Paper 90360, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Oct 2018.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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