The more the merrier? The effect of family size and birth order on children's education

By Paul J. Devereux, Sandra E. Black, Kjell G. Salvanes. 2005

1,278 citations recorded by the source corpus.

There is an extensive theoretical literature that postulates a trade-off between child quantity and quality within a family. However, there is little causal evidence that speaks to this theory. Using a rich data set on the entire population of Norway over an extended period of time, we examine the effects of family size and birth order on the educational attainment of children. We find a negative correlation between family size and children's education, but when we include indicators for birth order or use twin births as an instrument, family size effects become negligible. In addition, higher birth order has a significant and large negative effect on children's education. We also study adult earnings, employment, and teenage childbearing and find strong evidence for birth order effects with these outcomes, particularly among women. These findings suggest the need to revisit economic models of fertility and child "production," focusing not only on differences across families but differences within families as well.

Subfields: Demography, Gender Studies, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e91e9839e71c40ace3bade1aadf1ac8435c528bc

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Citations in the corpus

Sibling size and investment in children’s education: an asian instrument (2008, neutral): “For example, see Chun and Oh (2002); Black et al. (2005); Conley and Glauber (2005); and Angrist et al. (2005). does not cause any serious sample selection problem, as almost every household has at least one child at some point in the course of life.”
Birth Spacing and Sibling Outcomes (2012, positive): “These results are larger than the OLS estimates, suggesting that failing to account for the endogeneity of spacing may understate its benefits.”
The Effect of Sibship Size on Educational Attainment in China: Period Variations (2008, neutral): “…Cleland and Rodriguez 1988) and offspring’s education (Ganzeboom and Treiman 1993; Shavit and Blossfeld 1993; Treiman and Yip 1989), although some recent studies suggest weak or nonexistent effects after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity (Behrman and Rosenzweig 2002; Black et al. 2005b).”
Testing the quantity–quality model of fertility: Estimation using unrestricted family size models (2016, positive): “Speaking to the unrestricted specification of family size in the OLS estimation in Black, Devereux, and Salvanes (2005), the total effect of family size relative to 1 child families is given by Ω(N 1)= q(e∗(N)) − q(e∗(1)) (2) AlthoughΩ(2 1)= (2 1), the marginal effect and total effects will…”
Older and Wiser? Birth Order and IQ of Young Men (2007, neutral): “(See Black, Devereux, and Salvanes, 2005).”
Value versus growth investing: Why do different investors have different styles? (2015, neutral): “For example, economists have shown that birth order and family size (e.g., Black et al. (2005)) affect educational attainment and earnings later in life.”
Is Crime Contagious? (2007, neutral): “…for five-room units, and 7.5 percent for units with six rooms or more. across cities.19 At the same time, a growing body of research suggests that family size has little effect on children’s outcomes conditional on birth order (Black, Devereux, and Salvanes 2005; Angrist, Lavy, and Schlosser 2005).”
No Child Left Behind: Subsidized Child Care and Children's Long-Run Outcomes (2011, positive): “In any case, Black et al. (2005b) find little evidence of a causal relationship between parents’ education and children’s education in Norway.”
The Early Origins of Birth Order Differences in Children’s Outcomes and Parental Behavior (2016, positive): “Similarly, Black et al. (2007b) find that the negative relation between birth order and IQ scores of young Norwegian adults cannot be explained by birth endowments such as birthweight, gestational period, and head size. Although disparities in parental time or birth endowments are unable to explain ”
Using Instrumental Variables for Inference About Policy Relevant Treatment Effects (2018, positive): “(2015) re-examine the analysis by Black et al. (2005). Imposing functional structure on m(u, x), they can point identify the MTEs of family size.”