IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/9454.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Big Sisters

Author

Listed:
  • Jakiela,Pamela
  • Ozier,Owen
  • Fernald,Lia C.
  • Knauer,Heather Ashley

Abstract

This paper models household investments in young children when parents and oldersiblings share caregiving responsibilities and when investments by older siblings contribute to youngchildren's human capital accumulation. To test the predictions of the model, the paper estimates the impact ofhaving one older sister (as opposed to one older brother) on early childhood development in a sample of rural Kenyanhouseholds with otherwise similar family structures. Older sibling gender is not related to household structure,subsequent birth spacing, or other observable characteristics, so the presence of an older girl (asopposed to an older boy) is treated as plausibly exogenous. Having an older sister rather than an older brother improvesyounger siblings' vocabulary and fine motor skills by more than 0.1 standard deviations. Viewed through the lensof the model, the empirical pattern shown here suggests that: (i) older siblings' investments in young childrencontribute to their human capital accumulation, and (ii) households perceive lower returns to investing in oldergirls than in older boys.

Suggested Citation

  • Jakiela,Pamela & Ozier,Owen & Fernald,Lia C. & Knauer,Heather Ashley, 2020. "Big Sisters," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9454, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9454
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/384181603738785852/pdf/Big-Sisters.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    • Pamela Jakiela & Owen Ozier & Lia Fernald & Heather Knauer, 2020. "Big Sisters," Working Papers 559, Center for Global Development.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Orazio Attanasio & Sarah Cattan & Emla Fitzsimons & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2020. "Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(1), pages 48-85, January.
    2. Diva Dhar & Tarun Jain & Seema Jayachandran, 2022. "Reshaping Adolescents' Gender Attitudes: Evidence from a School-Based Experiment in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(3), pages 899-927, March.
    3. Shelley Clark, 2000. "Son preference and sex composition of children: Evidence from india," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(1), pages 95-108, February.
    4. Knauer,Heather Ashley & Kariger,Patricia Karol & Jakiela,Pamela & Ozier,Owen & Fernald,Lia C. H., 2019. "Multilingual Assessment of Early Child Development : Analyses from Repeated Observations of Children in Kenya," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9028, The World Bank.
    5. Robert Jensen, 2012. "Do Labor Market Opportunities Affect Young Women's Work and Family Decisions? Experimental Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(2), pages 753-792.
    6. Angrist, Joshua D & Evans, William N, 1998. "Children and Their Parents' Labor Supply: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 450-477, June.
    7. Knauer,Heather Ashley & Jakiela,Pamela & Ozier,Owen & Aboud,Frances E & Fernald,Lia C.H., 2019. "Enhancing Young Children's Language Acquisition through Parent-Child Book-Sharing : A Randomized Trial in Rural Kenya," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8733, The World Bank.
    8. Alison Andrew & Orazio Attanasio & Emla Fitzsimons & Sally Grantham-McGregor & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2018. "Impacts 2 years after a scalable early childhood development intervention to increase psychosocial stimulation in the home: A follow-up of a cluster randomised controlled trial in Colombia," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Adam N. Glynn & Maya Sen, 2015. "Identifying Judicial Empathy: Does Having Daughters Cause Judges to Rule for Women's Issues?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(1), pages 37-54, January.
    10. Knudsen, Eric I. & Heckman, James J. & Cameron, Judy L. & Shonkoff, Jack P., 2006. "Economic, Neurobiological and Behavioral Perspectives on Building America's Future Workforce," IZA Discussion Papers 2190, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. James J. Heckman, 2007. "The Economics, Technology and Neuroscience of Human Capability Formation," NBER Working Papers 13195, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Marcella Alsan, 2017. "The Gendered Spillover Effect of Young Children's Health on Human Capital: Evidence from Turkey," NBER Working Papers 23702, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Javaeria A. Qureshi, 2018. "Additional Returns to Investing in Girls' Education: Impact on Younger Sibling Human Capital," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(616), pages 3285-3319, December.
    14. Seema Jayachandran & Ilyana Kuziemko, 2011. "Why Do Mothers Breastfeed Girls Less than Boys? Evidence and Implications for Child Health in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1485-1538.
    15. Owen Ozier, 2018. "Exploiting Externalities to Estimate the Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Deworming," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 235-262, July.
    16. Ebonya L. Washington, 2008. "Female Socialization: How Daughters Affect Their Legislator Fathers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(1), pages 311-332, March.
    17. Eric Edmonds, 2006. "Understanding sibling differences in child labor," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(4), pages 795-821, October.
    18. Anna Aizer & Flávio Cunha, 2012. "The Production of Human Capital: Endowments, Investments and Fertility," NBER Working Papers 18429, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Mark M. Pitt & Mark R. Rosenzweig & Mohammad Nazmul Hassan, 2012. "Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor in a Brawn-Based Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3531-3560, December.
    20. Damian Clarke, 2018. "Children And Their Parents: A Review Of Fertility And Causality," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 518-540, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Buhl-Wiggers, Julie & Jones, Sam & Thornton, Rebecca, 2021. "Boys lagging behind: Unpacking gender differences in academic achievement across East Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Jorge M. Agüero & Mindy Marks & Neha Raykar, 2020. "Economic Development and the Motherhood Wage Penalty," Working papers 2020-06, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sylvia, Sean & Luo, Renfu & Zhong, Jingdong & Dill, Sarah-Eve & Medina, Alexis & Rozelle, Scott, 2022. "Passive versus active service delivery: Comparing the effects of two parenting interventions on early cognitive development in rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    2. Michael Baker & Kevin Milligan, 2016. "Boy-Girl Differences in Parental Time Investments: Evidence from Three Countries," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(4), pages 399-441.
    3. Olivia Bertelli, 2015. "The more the merrier? Adjusting fertility to weather shocks," Working Papers halshs-01226421, HAL.
    4. Van Effenterre, Clémentine, 2020. "Papa does preach: Daughters and polarization of attitudes toward abortion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 188-201.
    5. Rossi, Pauline & Rouanet, Léa, 2015. "Gender Preferences in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Fertility Choices," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 326-345.
    6. Maitra, Pushkar & Pal, Sarmistha & Sharma, Anurag, 2016. "Absence of Altruism? Female Disadvantage in Private School Enrollment in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 105-125.
    7. Diva Dhar & Tarun Jain & Seema Jayachandran, 2022. "Reshaping Adolescents' Gender Attitudes: Evidence from a School-Based Experiment in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(3), pages 899-927, March.
    8. Huichao Du & Yun Xiao & Liqiu Zhao, 2021. "Education and gender role attitudes," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 475-513, April.
    9. Seema Jayachandran, 2023. "Ten Facts about Son Preference in India," Working Papers 2023-12, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    10. Madhulika Khanna & Milan Thomas, 2024. "Gendered time poverty in three developing countries: An intra‐household analysis of children's time use," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 316-342, January.
    11. Van Campenhout, Bjorn, 2016. "Fertility, Agricultural Labor Supply, and Production: Instrumental Variable Evidence from Uganda," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 581-607, December.
    12. Doepke, M. & Tertilt, M., 2016. "Families in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1789-1891, Elsevier.
    13. Deng, Zichen & Lindeboom, Maarten, 2022. "A bit of salt, a trace of life: Gender norms and the impact of a salt iodization program on human capital formation of school aged children," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    14. Marco Alfano, 2014. "Daughters, Dowries, Deliveries:The Effect of Marital Payments on Fertility Choices in India," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1413, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    15. Michele Giannola, 2022. "Parental Investments and Intra-household Inequality in Child Human Capital: Evidence from a Survey Experiment," CSEF Working Papers 650, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy, revised 06 Dec 2022.
    16. Aparajita Dasgupta & Anisha Sharma, 2021. "Can Legal Bans on Sex Detection Technology Reduce Gender Discrimination?," Working Papers 58, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    17. Olivia Bertelli, 2015. "The more the merrier? Adjusting fertility to weather shocks," PSE Working Papers halshs-01226421, HAL.
    18. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Clarke, Damian & Walther, Selma, 2022. "Women's Careers and Family Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 15639, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Zurab Abramishvili & William Appleman & Sergii Maksymovych, 2019. "Parental Gender Preference in the Balkans and Scandinavia: Gender Bias or Differential Costs?," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp643, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    20. Fink, Günther & Venkataramani, Atheendar S. & Zanolini, Arianna, 2021. "Early life adversity, biological adaptation, and human capital: evidence from an interrupted malaria control program in Zambia," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender and Development; Social Protections & Assistance; Early Child and Children's Health; Nutrition; Early Childhood Development; Reproductive Health; Inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9454. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.