The intergenerational effects of birth order on education
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The intergenerational effects of birth order on education Enkelejda Havari1
· Marco Savegnago2
Received: 9 September 2019 / Accepted: 23 October 2020 / © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract We study the intergenerational effect of birth order on educational attainment using rich data from different European countries included in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The survey allows us to link two or more generations in different countries. We use reduced-form models linking children’s education to parents’ education, controlling for a large number of characteristics measured at different points in time. We find that not only are parents who are themselves firstborns better educated, on average, but they also have more-educated children compared with laterborn parents (intergenerational effect). Results are stronger for mothers than for fathers, and for daughters than for sons. In terms of heterogeneous effects, we find that girls born to firstborn mothers have higher educational attainment than girls born to laterborn mothers. We do not find evidence for potential channels other than parental education that could explain the intergenerational effect of parental birth order. Keywords Intergenerational effects · Education · Birth order · Firstborn · Europe · SHARE
1 Introduction Does being a firstborn child matter for outcomes later in life? The evidence we have to date shows that this is the case. The economic literature in particular shows that firstborn children tend to have better educational attainment than laterborn children Responsible editor: Shuaizhang Feng Enkelejda Havari
[email protected]
1
Marco Savegnago [email protected] Present address: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Via E. Fermi 2749, Ispra, 21027, Italy
2
Banca d’Italia, Via Nazionale 91, 00181 Rome, Italy
E. Havari, M. Savegnago
in developed countries (Becker and Lewis 1973; Black et al. 2005a; De Haan 2010; Hotz and Pantano 2015; Monfardini and See 2016; Esposito et al. 2020), whereas the opposite is found for developing countries (De Haan and Plug 2014). Furthermore, recent research using rich survey or administrative data shows birth order effects on earnings (Bertoni and Brunello 2016), health outcomes (Black et al. 2016), noncognitive skills and personality (Black et al. 2018), IQ and intelligence (Black et al. 2011), among other outcomes. Less has been done to explore whether these effects persist across generations. If a firstborn has higher educational attainment than laterborns, how much of this effect translates into higher educational attainment for his children? Answering this question empirically is not trivial. It is rare to have information on family structure for two or more linked generations along with information on completed education for all members of the family, family size, and other relevant variables. Data that allow examining other potential channels besides education, such as family income, behavior, health, and personality, are even more scarce. In
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