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Endowments and Parental Investments in Infancy and Early Childhood
- Demography
- Population Association of America
- Volume 47, Number 1, February 2010
- pp. 145-162
- 10.1353/dem.0.0092
- Article
- Additional Information
This article tests whether parents reinforce or compensate for child endowments. We estimate how the difference in birth weight across siblings impacts specific parental investments: breast-feeding, well-baby visits, immunizations, and preschool attendance. Our results indicate that normal-birth-weight children are 5%–11% more likely to receive early childhood parental investments than their low-birth-weight siblings. Moreover, the presence of additional low-birth-weight siblings in the household increases the likelihood of investments such as well-baby visits and immunizations for normal-birth-weight children. These results suggest that parental investments in early childhood tend to reinforce endowment differences.