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Brothers vs. Sisters: The Effect of Siblings' Gender on an Individual's Labor Market Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Yuval Mazar

    (Bank of Israel)

  • Uri Zilber

Abstract

This study examines—for the first time in Israel—the extent to which gender composition of siblings in the family influences their performance in the labor market. In particular, this work compares women with older brothers to women with older sisters, and men with older brothers to men with older sisters. The paper expands the conversation regarding the environment's influence on wages. Using data on non-ultra-Orthodox Jews born between 1975 and 1985, who were born last after two brothers or two sisters, we found that the gender of previous siblings has a statistically significant effect on wage only in certain population groups. Women of Ashkenazic descent who have two older sisters earn 7.0 percent more than women who have brothers, after controlling for other variables that may have an impact on wage. A similar effect was found for men from Ashkenazic descent. Most of the effect that we found for women was among those with high socioeconomic standing (women who live in localities in socioeconomic clusters 16–20), while for men, the effect was most prominent among those with lower and medium socioeconomic standing (those living in localities in socioeconomic clusters 1–15). We did not find robust results for women or men from Sephardic descent or mixed families.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuval Mazar & Uri Zilber, 2019. "Brothers vs. Sisters: The Effect of Siblings' Gender on an Individual's Labor Market Performance," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2019.16, Bank of Israel.
    • Handle: RePEc:boi:wpaper:2019.16
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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