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Are Economic Preferences Shaped by the Family Context? The Impact of Birth Order and Siblings' Sex Composition on Economic Preferences

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  • Detlefsen, Lena

    (University of Kiel)

  • Friedl, Andreas

    (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

  • Lima de Miranda, Katharina

    (Kiel Institute for the World Economy)

  • Schmidt, Ulrich
  • Sutter, Matthias

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods)

Abstract

The formation of economic preferences in childhood and adolescence has long-term consequences for life-time outcomes. We study in an experiment with 525 teenagers how both birth order and siblings’ sex composition affect risk, time and social preferences. We find that second born children are typically less patient, less risk averse, and more trusting. However, siblings' sex composition interacts importantly with birth order effects. Second born children are more risk taking only with same-sex siblings. For trust and trustworthiness, birth order effects are larger with mixed-sex siblings than in the single-sex case. Only for patience, siblings’ sex composition does not matter.

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  • Detlefsen, Lena & Friedl, Andreas & Lima de Miranda, Katharina & Schmidt, Ulrich & Sutter, Matthias, 2018. "Are Economic Preferences Shaped by the Family Context? The Impact of Birth Order and Siblings' Sex Composition on Economic Preferences," IZA Discussion Papers 11949, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11949
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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Dudek & Anne Ardila Brenøe & Jan Feld & Julia M. Rohrer, 2022. "No evidence that siblings’ gender affects personality across nine countries," ECON - Working Papers 408, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    2. Golsteyn, Bart H.H. & Magnée, Cécile A.J., 2020. "Does sibling gender affect personality traits?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Breitkopf, Laura & Chowdhury, Shyamal K. & Priyam, Shambhavi & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Do economic preferences of children predict behavior?," DICE Discussion Papers 342, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    4. Daniel Fellman & Richard Bränström & Agneta Herlitz, 2021. "Revisiting a basic question: does growing up in either female or male environment affect sex differences in academic strengths and occupational choices?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Marc‐André Luik & Amelia Guha Thakurta & Dennis Wesselbaum, 2021. "Child health, human capital, and adult financial behavior," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(11), pages 2722-2750, November.
    6. Mesfin, Hiwot & Cecchi, Francesco & Nillesen, Eleonora & Tirivayi, Nyasha, 2022. "The effect of siblings’ sex ratio on physical capital, human capital, and gendered time use among adolescents in Ethiopia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic preferences; siblings' sex composition; birth order; experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

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