Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/89966 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7680
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Fueled by new evidence, there has been renewed interest about the effects of birth order on human capital accumulation. The underlying causal mechanisms for such effects remain unsettled. We consider a model in which parents impose more stringent disciplinary environments in response to their earlier-born children's poor performance in school in order to deter such outcomes for their later-born offspring. We provide robust empirical evidence that school performance of children in the NLSY-C declines with birth order as does the stringency of their parents' disciplinary restrictions. And, when asked how they will respond if a child brought home bad grades, parents state that they would be less likely to punish their later-born children. Taken together, these patterns are consistent with a reputation model of strategic parenting.
Subjects: 
birth order
school performance
grades
parenting
parental rules
JEL: 
I20
J1
J13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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