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O Brother, Where Art Thou? : The Effects of Having a Sibling on Geographic Mobility and Labor Market Outcomes

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Author Info
Helmut Rainer
Thomas Siedler

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Abstract

In most industrialized countries, more people than ever are having to cope with the burden of caring for elderly parents. This paper formulates a model to explain how parental care responsibilities and family structure interact in affecting children's mobility characteristics. A key insight we obtain is that the mobility of young adults crucially depends on the presence of a sibling. Our explanation is mainly, but not ex-clusively, based on a sibling power effect. Siblings compete in location and employment decisions so as to direct parental care decisions at later stages towards their preferred outcome. Only children are not exposed to this kind of competition. This causes an equilibrium in which siblings not only exhibit higher mobility than only children, but also have better labor market outcomes. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and from the American National Survey of Families and House- holds (NSFH), we find strong evidence that confirms these patterns. The implications of our results are then discussed in the context of current population trends in Europe and the United States.

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Paper provided by DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research in its series Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin with number 608.

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Length: 43 p.
Date of creation: 2006
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Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp608

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Related research
Keywords: Geographic Mobility Intergenerational Relationships Care of the Elderly Family Bargaining.

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D19 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Other
J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped
C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General - - - Estimation

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  1. Maxim Engers & Steven Stern, 2002. "Long-Term Care and Family Bargaining," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 43(1), pages 73-114, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Steven Stern & Tennille J. Neuharth, 2000. "Shared Caregiving Responsibilities of Adult Siblings with Elderly Parents," Virginia Economics Online Papers 323, University of Virginia, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Parsons, Donald O, 1975. "Intergenerational Wealth Transfers and the Educational Decisions of Male Youth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 89(4), pages 603-17, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Tatsiramos, Konstantinos, 2004. "Geographic Labour Mobility and Unemployment Insurance in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 1253, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  5. Mark B. Stewart, 2004. "Semi-nonparametric estimation of extended ordered probit models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(1), pages 27-39, March. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Bertola, Giuseppe, 1999. "Microeconomic perspectives on aggregate labor markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 45, pages 2985-3028 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Rubinstein, Ariel, 1982. "Perfect Equilibrium in a Bargaining Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 97-109, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Gallant, A Ronald & Nychka, Douglas W, 1987. "Semi-nonparametric Maximum Likelihood Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(2), pages 363-90, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Antolin, Pablo & Bover, Olympia, 1997. "Regional Migration in Spain: The Effect of Personal Characteristics and of Unemployment, Wage and House Price Differentials Using Pooled Cross-Sections," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 59(2), pages 215-35, May.
  10. Admati, Anat R & Perry, Motty, 1991. "Joint Projects without Commitment," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 58(2), pages 259-76, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Sloan, Frank A & Picone, Gabriel & Hoerger, Thomas J, 1997. "The Supply of Children's Time to Disabled Elderly Parents," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 295-308, April.
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  1. repec:ese:iserwp: is not listed on IDEAS
  2. Thomas Siedler, 2007. "Schooling and Citizenship : Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Reforms," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 665, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Michèle Belot & John Ermisch, 2006. "Friendship Ties and Geographical Mobility: Evidence from the BHPS," IZA Discussion Papers 2209, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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