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The Educational and Fertility Effects of Sibling Deaths

Author

Listed:
  • Dhanushka Thamarapani

    (Department of Economics, California State University)

  • Marc Rockmore

    (Department of Economics, Clark University)

  • Willa Friedman

    (Department of Economics, University of Houston)

Abstract

An emerging literature finds that childhood exposure to adverse events determines adult outcomes and behavior. We extend this research to understand the influence of witnessing a sibling death as a child on subsequent educational and fertility outcomes in Indonesia. Using panel data and a sibling fixed effects model, we identify this relationship based on variation in the age of surviving children within the same family. Our findings strongly support the importance and persistence of adverse childhood experiences. In particular, for surviving sisters, witnessing a sibling death reduces the years of completed education and the likelihood of completing secondary schooling. The effect on surviving brothers is more muted. A potential channel for this result is that women respond by changing their fertility behavior. While surviving the death of a sibling has little effect on desired fertility levels, we find evidence that surviving sisters start a family about 3-4 years earlier. This suggests that interventions targeted at early-life outcomes may have important ripple effects and that the full impact of health interventions may not be visible until decades afterwards

Suggested Citation

  • Dhanushka Thamarapani & Marc Rockmore & Willa Friedman, 2018. "The Educational and Fertility Effects of Sibling Deaths," CINCH Working Paper Series 1801, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Competent in Competition and Health.
    • Handle: RePEc:duh:wpaper:1801
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Kronenberg, Christoph, 2020. "New(spaper) Evidence of a Reduction in Suicide Mentions during the 19th‐century US Gold Rush," CINCH Working Paper Series (since 2020) 73382, Duisburg-Essen University Library, DuEPublico.
    3. Elizabeth Lemmon, 2018. "Utilisation of personal care services in Scotland: the influence of unpaid carers," CINCH Working Paper Series 1802, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Competent in Competition and Health.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child mortality; Siblings; Education; Fertility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

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