SEMINAR: Economics Seminar

Abstract: We examine within-family differences in pre and early postnatal investments as explanations for the “birth order effect” – significant differences in the Educational and labor market outcomes across children of varying birth orders. Taking advantage of the rich information on in utero and early childhood Conditions in the Children of the NLSY79, we find that, within the same household, siblings of higher birth order experience a lower reduction in cigarette and alcohol usage during pregnancy, are breastfed less often, and experience less cognitive stimulation at ages 0 to 1. Next, we test for the presence of birth order effects in early cognitive/non-cognitive test scores and educational attainment and examine whether these differences can be explained by variations in prenatal and early childhood inputs. While we find a significant negative relationship between birth order and a wide range of early cognitive and non-cognitive tests as well as educational attainment, these birth order effects in outcomes are robust to controlling for variations in early childhood inputs.