IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v32y1997i2p250-284.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Brothers Really Better? Sibling Sex Composition and Educational Achievement Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Kaestner

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the relationship between sibling sex composition and educational achievement. First, I replicate the study of Butcher and Case (1994) using data on a more recent birth cohort. Contrary to the findings of that study, I find basically no effect of sibling sex composition on the educational attainment of white males or females, although among black adults, those who grew up with a sister, or who had relatively more sisters, had greater levels of educational attainment than black adults with no or fewer sisters. Second, I broaden the analysis by examining the educational outcomes of children and teenagers. This extension is important because it provides an additional opportunity to test for sibling sex composition effects, and it helps differentiate between potential causes of a sibling sex composition effect. The results obtained from the analysis of child and teen outcomes suggest that sibling sex composition had little effect on educational achievement. The only group to be affected was black teens between the ages of 15 and 18. Those who grew up with sisters had higher educational achievement levels than those who grew up with brothers.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Kaestner, 1997. "Are Brothers Really Better? Sibling Sex Composition and Educational Achievement Revisited," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(2), pages 250-284.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:32:y:1997:i:2:p:250-284
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/146215
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

    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:uwp:jhriss:v:32:y:1997:i:2:p:250-284. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    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.