IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/vfsc12/62065.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Child Quality and Child Quantity: Evidence from Bolivian Household Surveys

Author

Listed:
  • Bredl, Sebastian

Abstract

Models built on the classical quality-quantity trade-off predict an increase in child quality and a decrease in child quantity in poor developing countries when parental wealth and educational levels increase. This paper tests this prediction empirically in a cross-sectional framework with data from Bolivian household surveys. Instead of focusing on actual fertility levels, the reported desired number of children is considered. The potential problem of ex-post rationalizing births -- i.e. the adaptation of desired to actual fertility levels -- is taken into account. The empirical findings are in line with the predictions of these models. Furthermore a weak but significant negative impact of fertility exceeding the desired level on educational outcomes is found.

Suggested Citation

  • Bredl, Sebastian, 2012. "Child Quality and Child Quantity: Evidence from Bolivian Household Surveys," VfS Annual Conference 2012 (Goettingen): New Approaches and Challenges for the Labor Market of the 21st Century 62065, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc12:62065
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/62065/1/VfS_2012_pid_267.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chernichovsky, Dov, 1985. "Socioeconomic and Demographic Aspects of School Enrollment and Attendance in Rural Botswana," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 319-332, January.
    2. 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 143-162, August.
    3. Basu, Kaushik & Das, Sanghamitra & Dutta, Bhaskar, 2010. "Child labor and household wealth: Theory and empirical evidence of an inverted-U," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 8-14, January.
    4. Murat K. Munkin & Pravin K. Trivedi, 1999. "Simulated maximum likelihood estimation of multivariate mixed-Poisson regression models, with application," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 2(1), pages 29-48.
    5. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Evenson, Robert E, 1977. "Fertility, Schooling, and the Economic Contribution of Children in Rural India: An Econometric Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(5), pages 1065-1079, July.
    6. Maldonado, Jorge H. & González-Vega, Claudio, 2008. "Impact of Microfinance on Schooling: Evidence from Poor Rural Households in Bolivia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2440-2455, November.
    7. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1980. "Testing the Quantity-Quality Fertility Model: The Use of Twins as a Natural Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 227-240, January.
    8. David E. Sahn & David Stifel, 2003. "Exploring Alternative Measures of Welfare in the Absence of Expenditure Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 49(4), pages 463-489, December.
    9. Francesco Grigoli & Giacomo Sbrana, 2013. "Determinants And Dynamics Of Schooling And Child Labour In Bolivia," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65, pages 17-37, May.
    10. David McKenzie, 2005. "Measuring inequality with asset indicators," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 18(2), pages 229-260, June.
    11. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    12. Gary S. Becker & H. Gregg Lewis, 1974. "Interaction between Quantity and Quality of Children," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital, pages 81-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Silles, Mary A., 2010. "The implications of family size and birth order for test scores and behavioral development," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 795-803, October.
    14. Dalton Conley & Rebecca Glauber, 2006. "Parental Educational Investment and Children’s Academic Risk: Estimates of the Impact of Sibship Size and Birth Order from Exogenous Variation in Fertility," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(4).
    15. Bindon, James R. & Vitzthum, Virginia J., 2002. "Household economic strategies and nutritional anthropometry of women in American Samoa and highland Bolivia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 1299-1308, April.
    16. Zapata, Daniela & Contreras, Dante & Kruger, Diana, 2011. "Child Labor and Schooling in Bolivia: Who's Falling Behind? The Roles of Domestic Work, Gender, and Ethnicity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 588-599, April.
    17. Joshua Angrist & Victor Lavy & Analia Schlosser, 2010. "Multiple Experiments for the Causal Link between the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(4), pages 773-824, October.
    18. David N. Weil & Oded Galor, 2000. "Population, Technology, and Growth: From Malthusian Stagnation to the Demographic Transition and Beyond," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 806-828, September.
    19. Godoy, Ricardo & Karlan, Dean S. & Rabindran, Shanti & Huanca, Tomas, 2005. "Do modern forms of human capital matter in primitive economies? Comparative evidence from Bolivia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 45-53, February.
    20. Weiren Wang & Felix Famoye, 1997. "Modeling household fertility decisions with generalized Poisson regression," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 10(3), pages 273-283.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Shuang Chen, 2020. "Parental Investment After the Birth of a Sibling: The Effect of Family Size in Low-Fertility China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2085-2111, December.
    2. Keisuke Kawata & Mizuki Komura, 2023. "Only-child matching penalty in the marriage market," Papers 2307.15336, arXiv.org.
    3. Ea Hoppe Blaabæk & Mads Meier Jæger & Joseph Molitoris, 2020. "Family Size and Educational Attainment: Cousins, Contexts, and Compensation," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 36(3), pages 575-600, July.
    4. Vincent Bignon & Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa, 2018. "The Toll of Tariffs: Protectionism, Education and Fertility in Late 19th Century France," Working papers 690, Banque de France.
    5. Timothy J. Hatton, 2015. "Stature and Sibship: Historical Evidence," CEH Discussion Papers 039, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    6. Grace Lordan & Paul Frijters, 2013. "Unplanned Pregnancy And The Impact On Sibling Health Outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(8), pages 903-914, August.
    7. Moshe HAZAN & Hosny ZOABI, 2015. "Sons or Daughters? Sex Preferences and the Reversal of the Gender Educational Gap," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(2), pages 179-201, June.
    8. Zhou, Ying & Jia, Nan & Yang, Tianchi, 2021. "The quantity–quality trade-off related to investment in healthy human capital: New evidence from the implementation of the “selective two-child policy” in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    9. Liang, Yun & Gibson, John, 2018. "Do siblings take your food away? Using China's one-child policy to test for child quantity-quality trade-offs," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 14-26.
    10. Jesper Bagger & Javier A Birchenall & Hani Mansour & Sergio Urzúa, 2021. "Education, Birth Order and Family Size [Family size and children’s education in Vietnam]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(633), pages 33-69.
    11. 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.
    12. Jingdong Zhong & Jingjing Gao & Chengfang Liu & Jie Huang & Renfu Luo, 2019. "Quantity–Quality Trade-Off and Early Childhood Development in Rural Family: Evidence from China’s Guizhou Province," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-29, April.
    13. Fernihough, Alan, 2017. "Less is More? The child quantity-quality trade-off in early 20th century England and Wales," QUCEH Working Paper Series 2017-07, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    14. Jia, Nan & Zhou, Ying & Yang, Tianchi, 2021. "“Selective two-child” policy and household resource allocation," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    15. Park, Cheolsung & Chung, Wankyo, 2012. "Sibship Size, Birth Order, and Children's Education Indeveloping Countries : Evidence from Bangladesh," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 53(1), pages 1-23, June.
    16. Nancy Qian, 2009. "Quantity-Quality and the One Child Policy:The Only-Child Disadvantage in School Enrollment in Rural China," NBER Working Papers 14973, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Lutfullah Lutf & Shahadat I Haq Yasini, 2018. "Factors Contributing to Child Labor in Afghanistan: A Case Study in Jalalabad City," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 3, pages 348-372, September.
    18. Christina J. Diaz & Jeremy E. Fiel, 2021. "When Size Matters: IV Estimates of Sibship Size on Educational Attainment in the U.S," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(6), pages 1195-1220, December.
    19. Mountford, Andrew & Rapoport, Hillel, 2011. "The brain drain and the world distribution of income," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 4-17, May.
    20. Alan Fernihough, 2017. "Human capital and the quantity–quality trade-off during the demographic transition," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 35-65, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    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:zbw:vfsc12:62065. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfsocea.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.