Preprint,
Birth Order in the Very Long-Run: Estimating Firstborn Premiums between 1850 and 1940
Affiliations
- [1] Davidson College [NORA names: United States; America, North; OECD];
- [2] Brigham Young University [NORA names: United States; America, North; OECD];
- [3] Emory University [NORA names: United States; America, North; OECD];
- [4] University of Southern Denmark [NORA names: SDU University of Southern Denmark; University; Denmark; Europe, EU; Nordic; OECD]
Abstract
The nineteenth-century American family experienced tremendous demographic, economic, and institutional changes. By using birth order effects as a proxy for family environment, and linked census data on men born between 1835 and 1910, we study how the family’s role in human capital production evolved over this period. We find firstborn premiums for occupational outcomes, marriage, and fertility that are similar across census waves. Our results indicate that the returns to investments in the family environment were stable over a long period.
Keywords
American families,
birth,
birth order,
birth order effect,
capital productivity,
census,
census data,
census waves,
changes,
data,
effect,
environment,
family,
family environment,
family roles,
fertility,
firstborns,
human capital production,
institutional change,
investment,
long-run,
marriage,
men,
occupational outcomes,
order,
order effects,
outcomes,
period,
premium,
production,
results,
return,
role,
very,
wave
Data Provider: Digital Science
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