Better be first: Birth order and educational outcomes in Mexico

A new paper published in the Journal of Population Economics shows that the effect of birth order on educational outcomes in Mexico is negative.

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The importance of being earliest: birth order and educational outcomes along the socioeconomic ladder in Mexico

by Lucio Esposito, Sunil Mitra Kumar, Adrián Villaseñor

Journal of Population Economics (2020) 33, Issue 3:1069–1099
PDF of the article OPEN ACCESS

Author Abstract: We study the effect of birth order on educational outcomes in Mexico using 2 million observations from the 2010 Census. We find that the effect of birth order is negative, and a variety of endogeneity and robustness checks suggest a causal interpretation of this finding. We then examine whether these effects vary across households’ economic status, and we find significant heterogeneity across absolute as well as relative standards of living, operationalized as household wealth and relative deprivation. Finally, we find that firstborns’ advantage is amplified when they are male, and in particular when other siblings are female.

Access to the newly published complete Volume 33, Issue 3, July 2020.

LEAD ARTICLE OF ISSUE 3:
Blau, F.D., Kahn, L.M., Brummund, P. et al., Is there still son preference in the United States?.
Journal of Population Economics 33, 709–750 (2020). READ LINK FREE.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-019-00760-7

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