RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 On the Production of Skills and the Birth-Order Effect
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 699
OP 726
DO 10.3368/jhr.51.3.0913-5920R
VO 51
IS 3
A1 Ronni Pavan
YR 2016
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/51/3/699.abstract
AB First-born children tend to outperform their younger siblings on measures such as cognitive exams, wages, educational attainment, and employment. Using a framework similar to Cunha and Heckman (2008) and Cunha, Heckman, and Schennach (2010), this paper finds that differences in parents’ investments across siblings can account for more than one-half of the gap in cognitive skills among siblings. The study’s framework accommodates for endogeneity in parents’ investments, measurement error, missing observations, and dynamic impacts of parental investments.