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The Response of Household Parental Investment to Child Endowments

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  • David S Loughran
  • Ashlesha Datar
  • M. Rebecca Kilburn

Abstract

The theoretical and empirical literature on parental investment focuses on whether child-specific parental investments reinforce or compensate for a child's initial endowments. However, many parental investments, such as neighborhood quality and family size and structure, are shared wholly or in part among all children in a household. The empirical results of this paper imply that such household parental investments compensate for low endowments, as proxied by low birth weight.

Suggested Citation

  • David S Loughran & Ashlesha Datar & M. Rebecca Kilburn, 2008. "The Response of Household Parental Investment to Child Endowments," Working Papers WR-404-1, RAND Corporation.
    • Handle: RePEc:ran:wpaper:wr-404-1
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    Cited by:

    1. Paul Frijters & David Johnston & Manisha Shah & Michael Shields, 2013. "Intrahousehold Resource Allocation: Do Parents Reduce or Reinforce Child Ability Gaps?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(6), pages 2187-2208, December.
    2. Nicoletti, Cheti & Tonei, Valentina, 2017. "The Response of Parental Time Investments to the Child's Skills and Health," IZA Discussion Papers 10993, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Florence Neymotin, 2014. "How Parental Involvement Affects Childhood Behavioral Outcomes," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 433-451, December.
    4. David Loughran & Ashlesha Datar & M. Kilburn, 2008. "The response of household parental investment to child endowments," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 223-242, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    birth weight; child rearing; parenting; social status-health aspects; education-health aspects; economic indicators;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

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