THESIS
2012
viii, 38 p. ; 30 cm
Abstract
Previous studies in Western developed societies suggest that the higher one’s birth
order is, the less education he or she receives, which lends support to the family resource
dilution theory. However, in many East Asian societies, it has been reported repeatedly
that the ordinal position of birth is positively correlated with educational attainment. The
discrepancy between empirical findings in the West and in the East can probably be due
to two reasons: (1) Intrahousehold resource transfer from older children, especially older
daughters, to younger children, that is, inter-sibling resource transfer, often happens
within East Asian families; and/or (2) Previous studies conducted in East Asian societies
fail to consider and resolve the serious endogeneity problem that has plague...[
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Previous studies in Western developed societies suggest that the higher one’s birth
order is, the less education he or she receives, which lends support to the family resource
dilution theory. However, in many East Asian societies, it has been reported repeatedly
that the ordinal position of birth is positively correlated with educational attainment. The
discrepancy between empirical findings in the West and in the East can probably be due
to two reasons: (1) Intrahousehold resource transfer from older children, especially older
daughters, to younger children, that is, inter-sibling resource transfer, often happens
within East Asian families; and/or (2) Previous studies conducted in East Asian societies
fail to consider and resolve the serious endogeneity problem that has plagued all works.
By overcoming both theoretical and statistical limitations, this study reexamines the
effect of birth order on educational attainment in the context of Taiwan. Results from the
sibling fixed effects model demonstrate unequivocally that after inter-sibling resource
transfer has been properly controlled, the effect of birth order on educational achievement
has become significantly negative. This lends strong support that both parent-child
resource transfer and inter-sibling resource transfer play independent roles in determining
individual educational attainment. Furthermore, the study also finds that the birth order
effect is heterogeneous among different social groups and birth cohorts.
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