Birth order effects and parenting behaviors
Jun Hyung Kim and
Shaoda Wang
China Economic Review, 2023, vol. 79, issue C
Abstract:
While it is well known that there are systematic birth order effects on life cycle outcomes, there is less consensus about underlying channels and mechanisms of birth order effects. We find negative birth order effects among Chinese adolescents, favoring earlier-born children within household in academic achievement, cognitive skill measures, and in parenting behaviors including harsh parenting and parental investment. We highlight harsh parenting as a novel channel of birth order effects, in which earlier-born children are less likely to be physically punished by their parents. Heterogeneity analysis results are consistent with parents reinforcing academic advantage of better-performing earlier-born children, but do not support resource dilution, son preference, or reputation concerns as primary mechanisms underlying birth order effects. Our findings are in contrast to positive birth order effects found among earlier generations of Chinese siblings reported in the literature.
Keywords: Birth order effect; Parenting behaviors; Academic achievement; Cognitive skill (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J10 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chieco:v:79:y:2023:i:c:s1043951x23000354
DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2023.101950
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