The effect of number of siblings and birth order on educational attainment: Empirical Evidence from Chinese General Social Survey

Feng Xiong, Leizhen Zang, Ling Zhou, Fei Liu

Corresponding authors: Feng Xiong， e-mail: colinxf@stu.xjtu.edu.cn

International Journal of Educational Development, Vol.78, 2020

Abstract: Data from China demonstrate that the effect of the number of siblings on education is restricted by many factors, such as children’s gender, urban or rural household registration, whether there is only one child, the birth order of children within the family, and parents’ status. Chinese families have significant preferences for the eldest son and the youngest son. Moreover, research based on the natural experiment and instrumental variable approach suggests that market-oriented reform of education has increased the cost of family education expenditures since China’s reform and opening up, which further aggravates the negative impact on education of having many siblings in an urban setting.

Keywords: siblings; educational attainment; gender inequality; Chinese family policy

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To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2020.102270