We introduce a new instrument for family size, infertility, to investigate the causal relationship between children and female labor force participation. Infertility mimics an experiment where nature assigns an upper bound for family size, independent of a woman's background. This new instrument allows us to investigate the differential labor…

This paper presents new evidence of the causal effect of family size on child quality in a developing-country context. We estimate the impact of family size on child labor and educational outcomes among Brazilian children and young adults by exploring the exogenous variation of family size driven by the presence of twins in the family. Using the…

This paper uses Norwegian data to estimate the effect of family size on IQ scores of men. Instrumental variables (IV) estimates using sex composition as an instrument show no significant negative effect of family size; however, IV estimates using twins imply that family size has a negative effect on IQ scores. Our results suggest that the effect…

Using data from the American Time Use Survey, I find that a first-born child receives 20-30 more minutes of quality time each day with his or her parent than a second-born child of the same age from a similar family. The birth-order difference results from parents giving roughly equal time to each child at any point in time while the amount of…

Analysis of Canadian census data (1986-91) for 15 ethnic groups found the following: (1) the average educational attainment of a man's ethnic group was positively correlated with his returns to education; (2) lower fertility in one generation was associated with higher educational outcomes in the next; and (3) economic mobility at the ethnic group…

Data from Taiwanese cohorts show that parental investment in children is affected by credit constraints; early-born children do poorly, especially females; in poorer families and older cohorts, older sisters increase younger siblings' education; and in younger cohorts and richer families, effects of family size and gender composition are weaker.…

Using multiple births as an exogenous shift in family size, I investigate the impact of the number of children on child investment and child well-being. Using data from the 1980 US Census Five-Percent Public Use Micro Sample, 2SLS results demonstrate that parents facing a change in family size reallocate resources in a way consistent with Becker's…