Why Your Siblings Cost You Grades, Income, and Savings, Especially if You're Female

Nick Parr, Macquarie University

This paper examines differences between males and females in the effects of the number a siblings a person had when growing up on their educational attainment, income, bank balance and superannuation in later life. The data used are from Waves 1 and 2 of the Household, Income and labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, a large-scale nationwide survey conducted by Australian Commonwealth Government Department of Family and Community Services between 2001 and 2003. The results show that the number of siblings a person had generally had negative effects on their educational attainment, income, bank balance and superannuation, with the effects tending to be larger for females than for males. Differences in the outcomes by parental socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and the type of schooling a person had are also examined. The effects of family formation and attitudinal variables as factors mediating the effects of numbers of siblings are discussed.