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Birth Order Matters: The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Educational Attainment

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Author Info
Alison L. Booth () (Australian National University and IZA Bonn)
Hiau Joo Kee (Australian National University)

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Abstract

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.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 1713.

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Length: 37 pages
Date of creation: Jul 2005
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1713

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Related research
Keywords: family size; birth order; education;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Gary S. Becker & Robert J. Barro, 1988. "A Reformulation of the Economic Theory of Fertility," NBER Working Papers 1793, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis, 2002. "The Inheritance of Inequality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 3-30, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Becker, Gary S & Tomes, Nigel, 1976. "Child Endowments and the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages S143-62, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. S Black & Paul Devereux & Kjell Salvanes, 2005. "The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Childrens Education," CEE Discussion Papers 0050, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Becker, Gary S & Lewis, H Gregg, 1973. "On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages S279-88, Part II, . [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Robert Kaestner, 1996. "Are Brothers Really Better? Sibling Sex Composition and Educational Achievement Revisited," NBER Working Papers 5521, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Behrman, Jere R & Taubman, Paul, 1986. "Birth Order, Schooling, and Earnings," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages S121-45, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Gary S. Becker & James S. Duesenberry & Bernard Okun, 1960. "An Economic Analysis of Fertility," NBER Chapters, in: Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries, pages 225-256 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  9. Cigno, Alessandro & Ermisch, John, 1989. "A microeconomic analysis of the timing of births," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 737-760, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Dalton Conley & Rebecca Glauber, 2005. "Parental Educational Investment and Children's Academic Risk: Estimates of the Impact of Sibship Size and Birth Order from Exogenous Variations in Fertility," NBER Working Papers 11302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Barmby, T & Cigno, A, 1990. "A Sequential Probability Model of Fertility Patterns," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 31-51, April.
  12. Alison L. Booth & Hiau Joo Kee, 2006. "Intergenerational Transmission of Fertility Patterns in Britain," IZA Discussion Papers 2437, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  13. Mette Ejrnæs & Claus C. Pörtner, 2004. "Birth Order and the Intrahousehold Allocation of Time and Education," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(4), pages 1008-1019, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Hanushek, Eric A, 1992. "The Trade-Off between Child Quantity and Quality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(1), pages 84-117, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Carsten Ochsen, 2008. "Recommendation, Class Repeating, and Children's Ability: German School Tracking Experiences," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 96, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. Ian Walker & Yu Zhu, 2008. "Child Support and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Studies in Economics 0811, Department of Economics, University of Kent. [Downloadable!]
  3. Carmen Aina & Giorgia Casalone & Paolo Ghinetti, 2008. "Internal Geographical Mobility And Educational Outcomes. An Analysis For An Italian Province," Working Papers 120, SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont. [Downloadable!]
  4. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2007. "Older and Wiser? Birth Order and IQ of Young Men," IZA Discussion Papers 3007, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Hatton, Timothy J. & Martin, Richard M., 2008. "The Effects on Stature of Poverty, Family Size and Birth Order: British Children in the 1930s," IZA Discussion Papers 3314, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Martin Ryan & Siobhan McCarthy & Carol Newman, 2007. "Household Characteristics of Higher Education Participants," Working Papers 200702, Geary Institute, University College Dublin. [Downloadable!]
  7. Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields & Timothy J. Hatton & Richard M. Martin, 2007. "Childhood Economic Conditions and Length of Life: Evidence from the UK Boyd Orr Cohort, 1937-2005," IZA Discussion Papers 3042, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  8. Hatton, Timothy J. & Martin, Richard M., 2009. "Fertility Decline and the Heights of Children in Britain, 1886-1938," IZA Discussion Papers 4306, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Carsten Ochsen, 2008. "Parental Labor Market Success and Children's Education Attainment," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 95, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  10. Alison L. Booth & Hiau Joo Kee, 2006. "Intergenerational Transmission of Fertility Patterns in Britain," IZA Discussion Papers 2437, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  11. Alison Booth & Melvyn Coles & Xiaodong Gong, 2006. "Increasing Returns to Education: Theory and Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 522, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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