Sweet child of mine: Parental income, child health and inequality

Nicolas Berman, Lorenzo Rotunno and Roberta Ziparo
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Nicolas Berman: AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research
Lorenzo Rotunno: FMI - Fond Monétaire International - FMI
Roberta Ziparo: AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: How to allocate limited resources among children is a crucial household decision, especially in developing countries where it can have strong implications for children and family survival. We provide the first large scale study linking variations in parental income in the early life of children to subsequent child health and parental investments across siblings in developing countries, using data from multiple waves of the Demographic and Health Surveys spanning 54 countries. Variations in the world prices of locally suitable crops are used as measures of local income. We find that children born in periods of higher income receive better health investments and display persistently higher levels of health than their siblings. Children whose siblings were born during favourable income periods receive less investment and exhibit worse health. These findings are consistent with a model of sibling rivalry where parents invest in the child with the highest returns and complementarities in investment across periods. We also provide evidence that other investments (education, parental time use and child labour) react to sibling rivalry. Our results suggest that income shocks can enlarge disparities within households.

Keywords: health; income; parental investments; intra-household allocations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05-09
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05120213v1
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Published in The Economic Journal, 2025, ⟨10.1093/ej/ueaf036⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05120213

DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueaf036

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