Working Paper: NBER ID: w19542
Authors: V. Joseph Hotz; Juan Pantano
Abstract: Fueled by new evidence, there has been renewed interest about the effects of birth order on human capital accumulation. The underlying causal mechanisms for such effects remain unsettled. We consider a model in which parents impose more stringent disciplinary environments in response to their earlier-born children's poor performance in school in order to deter such outcomes for their later-born offspring. We provide robust empirical evidence that school performance of children in the NLSY-C declines with birth order as does the stringency of their parents' disciplinary restrictions. And, when asked how they will respond if a child brought home bad grades, parents state that they would be less likely to punish their later-born children. Taken together, these patterns are consistent with a reputation model of strategic parenting.
Keywords: birth order; school performance; strategic parenting; human capital
JEL Codes: I21; J1; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Parental discipline (Y80) | School performance (D29) |
| Birth order (J13) | School performance (D29) |
| Birth order (J13) | Parental discipline (Y80) |