O Brother, Where Art Thou? The Effects of Having a Sibling on Geographic Mobility and Labour Market Outcomes

Abstract

This paper formulates a model to explain how parental care responsibilities and family structure interact in affecting children's mobility characteristics. Our main result is that the mobility of young adults crucially depends on the presence of a sibling. Siblings compete in location and employment decisions to direct parental care decisions towards their preferred outcome. Only children are not exposed to this kind of competition. This causes an equilibrium in which siblings exhibit higher mobility than only children, and also have better labour market outcomes. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we find evidence that confirms these patterns. Copyright (c) The London School of Economics and Political Science 2008.

Leaving Mum Alone? The Effect of Parental Separation on Children’s Decisions to Leave Home

“…This suggests that at the time a child can decide whether to leave the parental home, being the last one in the home with a lone mother delays the departure, probably for fear of leaving the mother alone and/or for the fact that the home is not so crowded and there is enough privacy. This fact, from a different point of view, confirms Rainer and Siedler's (2009) results, which find that only children tend to live closer to their parents, compared to children who have siblings, and that, among families with more than one child, youngest siblings (i.e., the last one who leaves the parental home) tend to live closer to their parents than older siblings. Only children or children who are the last to leave the parental home, are more concerned about their parents (their single mother, in our case) and behave differently compared to children who do have siblings still living at home.…”

“…Nevertheless, studies in this area have not considered a full range of living situations, for instance the fact of living at home with a single-parent with or without siblings. In general the presence of siblings at home (also if not half-or step-siblings) is always linked with a higher youth mobility and earlier nest-leaving (Rainer and Siedler, 2009). …”

Job Loss and Regional Mobility

“…See Konrad et al (2002) and Rainer and Siedler (2009). These papers do not assess migration as such, but analyze proximity between siblings and parents.…”

Family Proximity, Childcare, and Women's Labor Force Attachment

“…4 Rainer and Siedler (2009) In their model, the eldest sibling has the first mover advantage and moves away from the parents to shift the burden of providing long-term care for elderly parents to younger siblings.…”