Born to Lead? The Effect of Birth Order on Noncognitive Abilities

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in Born to Lead? The Effect of Birth Order on Non-Cognitive Abilities februAry 2017Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world's largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. We study the effect of birth order on personality traits among men using population data on enlistment records and occupations for Sweden. We find that earlier born men are more emotionally stable, persistent, socially outgoing, willing to assume responsibility, and able to take initiative than later-borns. In addition, we find that birth order affects occupational sorting; first-born children are more likely to be managers, while later-born children are more likely to be self-employed. We also find that earlier born children are more likely to be in occupations that require leadership ability, social ability and the Big Five personality traits. Finally, we find a significant role of sex composition within the family. Later-born boys suffer an additional penalty the larger the share of boys among the older siblings.When we investigate possible mechanisms, we find that the negative effects of birth order are driven by post-natal environmental factors. We also find evidence of lower parental human capital investments in later-born children. JEL Classification:J12, J24

Parental Leave Benefits, Household Labor Supply, and Children’s Long-Run Outcomes

“…If time spent with the mother in the first years of life is more important than when children are older, later-born children will benefit less from parental time since that time is competed for with an older sibling (Markus and Zajonc, 1977;Zajonc, 1976;Price, 2008). 28 Moreover, recent work finds that birth order effects on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes are driven by differential parental investments across children of different parities after their birth (Pavan, 2016;Black et al, 2018). The automatic renewal of PL benefits in Sweden thus seems to contribute to part of the "birth order penalty", potentially by increasing the gap in maternal time between older and younger children.…”

“…The literature on birth order effects demonstrates that educational attainment and cognitive ability decreases with birth order(Black et al, 2005(Black et al, , 2011Hotz and Pantano, 2015;Black et al, 2018). See alsoBjörkegren and Svaleryd (2017) for evidence on birth order and health, andBreining et al (2017) on birth order and delinquency.…”

DamianSpengler_2020_EJP_Negligible Effects of Birth Order on Selection into Scientific and Artistic Careers, Creativity, and Status Attainment

“…Regarding birth order and creative careers, there is only one study, that we are aware of, that used population data and a large sample (from Sweden) to look at birth order effects on selection into "creative occupations" (Black et al, 2018). Contrary to the niche-finding model predictions, this study found no statistically significant association between birth order and creative occupation (though they did observe a small effect, r < .03, for women only, where later-born daughters appeared to select into slightly more creative occupations).…”

“…Notably, although the effect of birth order on educational attainment appears to be robust among wealthy Western countries, a recent study conducted in Indonesia suggests the effect might not replicate across all cultures (Botzet et al, under review). BIRTH ORDER AND OCCUPATIONAL OUTCOMES 6 Firstborns (vs. laterborns) also appeared to occupy higher prestige jobs (Black et al, 2018;Herrera et al, 2003) and have a higher income (r ~ .10-.24;Björklund & Jäntti, 2012;Black et al, 2005;Davis, 1997). Importantly, many of these studies (i.e., Barclay, 2015;Björklund & Jäntti, 2012;Black et al, 2005;Kristensen & Bjerkedal, 2010) were conducted on large representative population samples (from Sweden and Norway), which allowed for high precision in estimation.…”

Parental leave benefits, household labor supply, and children's long-run outcomes

“…The literature on birth order effects demonstrates that educational attainment and cognitive ability decreases with birth order(Black et al, 2005(Black et al, , 2011Hotz and Pantano, 2015;Black et al, 2018). See alsoBjörkegren and Svaleryd (2017) for evidence on birth order and health, andBreining et al (2017) on birth order and delinquency.…”