Events at CERGE-EI
Monday, 6 November, 2023 | 14:00 | Room 402 | Applied Micro Research Seminar
Erik Plug (University of Amsterdam) "The Only Child"
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Join online: https://call.lifesizecloud.com/19733139 (Passcode: 4769)
Authors: Erik Plug, Petter Lundborg, Astrid Wurz Rasmussen, and Julius Ilciukas
Abstract: This paper examines how only children fare in school using fertility treatment success as natural experiment. With administrative data from Denmark, we first show that in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments provide ample exogenous variation in the likelihood to have siblings. With IVF treatment success as legitimate instrumental variable (IV), we then estimate the causal effect of being the only child on school performance. Our results indicate that, when it comes to the school outcomes we measure, there is little value in having siblings; that is, first-born children with and without siblings (for exogenous reasons) do equally well when it comes to test scores, social skills, and school wellbeing.
