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New Evidence on the Causal Link Between the Quantity and Quality of Children

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Author Info
Joshua D. Angrist
Victor Lavy
Analia Schlosser

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Abstract

A longstanding question in the economics of the family is the relationship between sibship size and subsequent human capital formation and economic welfare. If there is a %u201Cquantity-quality trade-off,%u201D then policies that discourage large families should lead to increased human capital, higher earnings, and, at the macro level, promote economic development. Ordinary least squares regression estimates and a large theoretical literature suggest that this is indeed the case. This paper provides new evidence on the child-quantity/child-quality trade-off. Our empirical strategy exploits exogenous variation in family size due to twin births and preferences for a mixed sibling-sex composition, as well as ethnic differences in the effects of these variables, and preferences for boys in some ethnic groups. We use these sources of variation to look at the causal effect of family size on completed educational attainment, fertility, and earnings. For the purposes of this analysis, we constructed a unique matched data set linking Israeli Census data with information on the demographic structure of families drawn from a population registry. Our results show no evidence of a quantity-quality trade-off, though some estimates suggest that first-born girls from large families marry sooner.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11835.

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Date of creation: Dec 2005
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11835

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General Welfare

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    Other versions:
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  7. Lee, Jungmin, 2004. "Sibling Size and Investment in Children's Education: An Asian Instrument," IZA Discussion Papers 1323, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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(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. Meng, Xin & Qian, Nancy, 2006. "The Long Run Health and Economic Consequences of Famine on Survivors: Evidence from China's Great Famine," CEPR Discussion Papers 5989, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Elisabeth Gugl & Linda Welling, 2007. "The Early Bird gets the Worm? Birth Order Effects in a Dynamic Model of the Family," Department Discussion Papers 0710, Department of Economics, University of Victoria. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Baez, Javier E., 2008. "Does More Mean Better? Sibling Sex Composition and the Link between Family Size and Children’s Quality," IZA Discussion Papers 3472, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  4. Millimet, Daniel L. & Wang, Le, 2009. "Is the Quantity-Quality Trade-off a Trade-off for All, None, or Some?," IZA Discussion Papers 4078, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  5. Jungmin Lee, 2008. "Sibling size and investment in children’s education: an asian instrument," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 855-875, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Larry E. Jones & Alice Schoonbroodt & Michèle Tertilt, 2008. "Fertility Theories: Can They Explain the Negative Fertility-Income Relationship?," NBER Working Papers 14266, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Xin Meng & Nancy Qian, 2009. "The Long Term Consequences of Famine on Survivors: Evidence from a Unique Natural Experiment using China's Great Famine," NBER Working Papers 14917, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Ponczek, Vladimir & Portela, André, 2007. "The Causal Effect of Family Size on Child Labor and Education," Textos para discussão 162, Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil). [Downloadable!]
  9. Jung Hur & Yohanes E. Riyanto, 2007. "Organizational Structure and Product Market Competition," Departmental Working Papers wp0705, National University of Singapore, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  10. Jeffrey R. Kling & Jens Ludwig, 2006. "Is Crime Contagious?," Working Papers 889, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
  11. Alejandra Cattaneo & Sandra Hanslin & Rainer Winkelmann, 2007. "The Apple Falls Increasingly Far: Parent-Child Correlation in Schooling and the Growth of Post-Secondary Education in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 143(II), pages 133-153, June. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Mark R. Rosenzweig & Junsen Zhang, 2006. "Do Population Control Policies Induce More Human Capital Investment? Twins, Birthweight, and China's 'One Child' Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 2082, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  13. Jens Ludwig & Jeffrey R. Kling, 2006. "Is Crime Contagious?," IZA Discussion Papers 2213, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  14. Monique de Haan, 2005. "Birth Order, Family Size and Educational Attainment," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 05-116/3, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
  15. Jens Ludwig & Jeffrey R. Kling, 2006. "Is Crime Contagious?," NBER Working Papers 12409, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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