Whoever has will be given more: child endowment and human capital investment

0490355 - NHÚ 2019 RIV CZ eng V - Výzkumná zpráva
Borga, Liyousew Gebremedhin - Pidkuyko, M.
Whoever has will be given more: child endowment and human capital investment.
Prague: CERGE-EI, 2018. 41 s. CERGE-EI Working Paper Series, 616. ISSN 1211-3298
Grant CEP: GA ČR(CZ) GBP402/12/G130
Institucionální podpora: RVO:67985998
Klíčová slova: cognitive ability * health endowment * intrahousehold allocation
Obor OECD: Applied Economics, Econometrics
https://www.cerge-ei.cz/pdf/wp/Wp616b.pdf

Using a unique longitudinal survey from Ethiopia, we investigate whether resource constrained
parents reinforce or attenuate differences in early abilities between their children. We propose a simple model that allows for sibling interactions. To overcome the endogeneity associated with measures of endowment, we construct a measure of human capital at birth that is plausibly net of prenatal investment. We estimate a sibling fixed-effect model to account for bias due to unobserved family-specific heterogeneity. We find that parents reinforce educational inequality: inherently healthy children are more likely to attend preschool, be enrolled in elementary school, and have more expenses incurred towards their education. Health inputs are allocated in a compensatory manner.

Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0284598