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The Response of Household Parental Investment to Child Endowments

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  • David S Loughran
  • Ashlesha Datar
  • M. Rebecca Kilburn

Abstract

The theoretical and empirical literature on parental investment focuses on whether child-specific parental investments reinforce or compensate for a child's initial endowments. However, many parental investments, such as neighborhood quality and family size and structure, are shared wholly or in part among all children in a household. The empirical results of this paper imply that such household parental investments compensate for low endowments, as proxied by low birth weight.

Suggested Citation

  • David S Loughran & Ashlesha Datar & M. Rebecca Kilburn, 2008. "The Response of Household Parental Investment to Child Endowments," Working Papers WR-404-1, RAND Corporation.
    • Handle: RePEc:ran:wpaper:wr-404-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicoletti, Cheti & Tonei, Valentina, 2017. "The Response of Parental Time Investments to the Child's Skills and Health," IZA Discussion Papers 10993, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Paul Frijters & David Johnston & Manisha Shah & Michael Shields, 2013. "Intrahousehold Resource Allocation: Do Parents Reduce or Reinforce Child Ability Gaps?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(6), pages 2187-2208, December.
    3. Florence Neymotin, 2014. "How Parental Involvement Affects Childhood Behavioral Outcomes," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 433-451, December.
    4. David Loughran & Ashlesha Datar & M. Kilburn, 2008. "The response of household parental investment to child endowments," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 223-242, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    birth weight; child rearing; parenting; social status-health aspects; education-health aspects; economic indicators;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

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