2025/08/08 by Pamela Jakiela, Owen Ozier, Lia C. H. Fernald +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Socioeconomic Development in MENA
paper · pdf · doi:10.3368/jhr.0623-12969r1
<h3>Abstract</h3> We model household investments in young children when parents and older siblings share caregiving responsibilities and investments by older siblings contribute to young children’s human capital accumulation. To test the predictions of our model, we estimate the impact of having an older sister (as opposed to an older brother) on early childhood development in a sample of rural Kenyan households with otherwise similar family structures. Having an older sister rather than an older brother improves younger siblings’ vocabulary and fine motor skills by more than 0.1 standard deviations.