Budget Constraints and Son Preference in Educational Investment in Taiwan

Yi-Chun Chang, Jui-Chung Allen Li

Published Aug 1, 2012

This study examines the educational effects of sibship sex composition using data from the 2002 and 2007 Taiwan Social Change Survey. The results show that men with older siblings, especially older sisters, have higher educational attainment, while women with both younger sisters and younger brothers have lower educational attainment. Moreover, the positive effect of having an additional older sibling on men's educational attainment only exists in large families but not small families. It interprets the findings as consistent with an indirect parental effect of intra-family transfer of resources, reflecting parents' son preference in educational investment in their offspring; and that such a son preference is only present when the family is under budget constraints. Implications of these findings for trends in declining fertility and diminishing gender gap in educational attainment are discussed.

Topics

Document Details

Citation

RAND Style Manual
Chang, Yi-Chun and Jui-Chung Allen Li, Budget Constraints and Son Preference in Educational Investment in Taiwan, RAND Corporation, WR-953, 2012. As of October 10, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR953.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Chang, Yi-Chun and Jui-Chung Allen Li, Budget Constraints and Son Preference in Educational Investment in Taiwan. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2012. https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR953.html.
BibTeX RIS

This paper series was made possible by the NIA funded RAND Center for the Study of Aging and the NICHD funded RAND Population Research Center.

This publication is part of the RAND working paper series. RAND working papers are intended to share researchers' latest findings and to solicit informal peer review. They have been approved for circulation by RAND but may not have been formally edited or peer reviewed.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.