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Sibling Rivalry: Endowment and Intrahousehold Allocation in Gansu Province, China

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  • Jessica Leight

Abstract

This article evaluates the strategies employed by households in rural China to allocate educational expenditure to children of different physical endowments, examining whether parents use educational funding to reinforce or compensate for these differences. Climatic shocks are employed as an instrument for endowment, measured as height-for-age, allowing for the identification of the impact of quasi-exogenous variation in endowment on parental allocations conditional on household fixed effects. The results suggest that educational expenditure is directed to the relatively weaker child; in response to the mean difference in height-for-age between siblings, parents redirect around 25% of discretionary educational spending to the child with the lower height-for-age, and this effect is robust to the potentially confounding effects of gender and birth order. There is some evidence that time allocation may also be a relevant margin of compensation but no evidence that medical expenditure responds to differences in height-for-age.

Suggested Citation

  • Jessica Leight, 2017. "Sibling Rivalry: Endowment and Intrahousehold Allocation in Gansu Province, China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(3), pages 457-493.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/690647
    DOI: 10.1086/690647
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    Cited by:

    1. Michele Giannola, 2022. "Parental investments and intra-household inequality in child human capital: evidence from a survey experiment," IFS Working Papers W22/54, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    2. Jia Wu & Jiada Lin & Xiao Han, 2023. "Compensation for girls in early childhood and its long-run impact: family investment strategies under rainfall shocks," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1225-1268, July.
    3. Jessica Leight & Elaine M. Liu, 2020. "Maternal Education, Parental Investment, and Noncognitive Characteristics in Rural China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(1), pages 213-251.
    4. Katherine P Adams & Seth Adu-Afarwuah & Helena Bentil & Brietta M Oaks & Rebecca R Young & Stephen A Vosti & Kathryn G Dewey, 2019. "The effects of a nutrient supplementation intervention in Ghana on parents’ investments in their children," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-21, March.
    5. Farris, Jarrad G. & Jin, Songqing & Maredia, Mywish K. & Porter, Maria, 2018. "Assessing Heterogeneity in the Child Growth Impacts of In-Utero Rainfall Shocks in Rural Rwanda," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274230, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Camilo, Karen & Zuluaga, Blanca, 2022. "The effects of conditional cash transfers on schooling and child labor of nonbeneficiary siblings," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    7. Jorge Garcia Hombrados, 2018. "Empirical essays on development economics," Economics PhD Theses 0318, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    8. Mario Biggeri & Jose Antonio Cuesta, 2021. "An Integrated Framework for Child Poverty and Well-Being Measurement: Reconciling Theories," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(2), pages 821-846, April.
    9. Liyousew G. Borga & Myroslav Pidkuyko, 2018. "Whoever Has Will Be Given More: Child Endowment and Human Capital Investment," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp616, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    10. Jessica Leight & Paul Glewwe & Albert Park, 2015. "The Impact of Early Childhood Rainfall Shocks on the Evolution of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills," Department of Economics Working Papers 2016-14, Department of Economics, Williams College, revised Oct 2016.
    11. Adams, Katherine P. & Lybbert, Travis J. & Vosti, Stephen A. & Ayifah, Emmanuel & Arimond, Mary & Adu-Afarwuah, Seth & Dewey, Kathryn G., 2018. "Unintended effects of a targeted maternal and child nutrition intervention on household expenditures, labor income, and the nutritional status of non-targeted siblings in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 138-150.
    12. Wei Fan & Catherine Porter, 2020. "Reinforcement or compensation? Parental responses to children’s revealed human capital levels," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 233-270, January.
    13. Jorge García Hombrados, 2017. "Cognitive Skills and Intra-Household Allocation of Schooling," Working Paper Series 1817, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    14. Jessica Leight & Elaine M. Liu, 2016. "Maternal Education, Parental Investment and Non-Cognitive Skills in Rural China," NBER Working Papers 22233, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Marie Baguet & Christelle Dumas, 2019. "How does birth weight affect health and human capital? A short‐ and long‐term evaluation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 597-617, May.

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