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Who gets to look nice and who gets to play? Effects of child gender on household expenditures

Author

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  • Krzysztof Karbownik

    (Northwestern University)

  • Michal Myck

    (Centre for Economic Analysis - CenEA)

Abstract

We examine the relationship between a child’s gender and family expenditure using data from the Polish Household Budget Survey. Having a first-born daughter as compared with a first-born son increases the level of household expenditures on child and adult female clothing, and it reduces spending on games, toys and hobbies. This could be a reflection of a pure gender bias on behalf of the parents or a reflection of gender complementarities between parents’ and children’s expenditures. We find no robust evidence on gender differences in educational investment, measured by kindergarten expenditure. The analysed expenditure patterns suggest a so-far unexamined role of gender in child development. Parents in Poland seem to pay more attention to how girls look and favour boys with respect to activities and play, which could have consequences in adult life and contribute to sustaining gender inequalities and stereotypes.

Suggested Citation

  • Krzysztof Karbownik & Michal Myck, 2017. "Who gets to look nice and who gets to play? Effects of child gender on household expenditures," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 925-944, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:15:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s11150-016-9328-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11150-016-9328-y
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    Cited by:

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    2. Mari, Gabriele & Keizer, Renske, 2021. "Do high-income households 'label' family cash transfers? Evidence on family expenditures from Australia," SocArXiv ucyzb, Center for Open Science.
    3. Xia Wang & Cencen Gao & Mingming Feng, 2023. "Owner offspring gender and long‐term resource allocation in Chinese family firms," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2549-2564, July.
    4. Serhii Maksymovych & William Appleman & Zurab Abramishvili, 2023. "Parental gender preference in the Balkans and Scandinavia: gender bias or differential costs?," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 1-48, December.
    5. Zurab Abramishvili & William Appleman & Sergii Maksymovych, 2019. "Parental Gender Preference in the Balkans and Scandinavia: Gender Bias or Differential Costs?," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp643, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    6. Michał Myck & Monika Oczkowska & Izabela Wowczko, 2024. "Parental gender preferences in Central and Eastern Europe and differential early life disadvantages," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(1), pages 237-263, January.
    7. Mahbub Hossain & M. Niaz Asadullah & Uma Kambhampati, 2021. "Women’s empowerment and gender-differentiated food allocation in Bangladesh," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 739-767, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender differences; Household expenditures; Early childhood;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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