Publications [#344662] of V. Joseph Hotz

Journal Articles

1. Hotz, VJ; Pantano, J, Strategic parenting, birth order, and school performance., Journal of population economics, vol. 28 no. 4 (October, 2015), pp. 911-936 [doi]
   (last updated on 2026/01/21)

   Abstract:
   Fueled by new evidence, there has been renewed interest about the effects of birth order on human capital accumulation. The underlying causal mechanisms for such effects remain unsettled. We consider a model in which parents impose more stringent disciplinary environments in response to their earlier-born children's poor performance in school in order to deter such outcomes for their later-born offspring. We provide robust empirical evidence that school performance of children in the National Longitudinal Study Children (NLSY-C) declines with birth order as does the stringency of their parents' disciplinary restrictions. When asked how they will respond if a child brought home bad grades, parents state that they would be less likely to punish their later-born children. Taken together, these patterns are consistent with a reputation model of strategic parenting.