O brother, where start thou? Sibling spillovers on college and major choice in four countries

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11640%2F21%3A00544487" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11640/21:00544487 - isvavai.cz</a>

Nalezeny alternativní kódy

RIV/67985998:_____/21:00549906

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjab006" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjab006</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjab006" target="_blank" >10.1093/qje/qjab006</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

O brother, where start thou? Sibling spillovers on college and major choice in four countries

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Family and social networks are widely believed to influence important life decisions, but causal identification of those effects is notoriously challenging. Using data from Chile, Croatia, Sweden, and the United States, we study within-family spillovers in college and major choice across a variety of national contexts. Exploiting college-specific admissions thresholds that directly affect older but not younger siblings’ college options, we show that in all four countries a meaningful portion of younger siblings follow their older sibling to the same college or college-major combination. Older siblings are followed regardless of whether their target and counterfactual options have large, small, or even negative differences in quality. Spillover effects disappear, however, if the older sibling drops out of college, suggesting that older siblings’ college experiences matter. That siblings influence important human capital investment decisions across such varied contexts suggests that our findings are not an artifact of particular institutional detail but a more generalizable description of human behavior. Causal links between the postsecondary paths of close peers may partly explain persistent college enrollment inequalities between social groups, and this suggests that interventions to improve college access may have multiplier effects.

Název v anglickém jazyce

O brother, where start thou? Sibling spillovers on college and major choice in four countries

Popis výsledku anglicky

Family and social networks are widely believed to influence important life decisions, but causal identification of those effects is notoriously challenging. Using data from Chile, Croatia, Sweden, and the United States, we study within-family spillovers in college and major choice across a variety of national contexts. Exploiting college-specific admissions thresholds that directly affect older but not younger siblings’ college options, we show that in all four countries a meaningful portion of younger siblings follow their older sibling to the same college or college-major combination. Older siblings are followed regardless of whether their target and counterfactual options have large, small, or even negative differences in quality. Spillover effects disappear, however, if the older sibling drops out of college, suggesting that older siblings’ college experiences matter. That siblings influence important human capital investment decisions across such varied contexts suggests that our findings are not an artifact of particular institutional detail but a more generalizable description of human behavior. Causal links between the postsecondary paths of close peers may partly explain persistent college enrollment inequalities between social groups, and this suggests that interventions to improve college access may have multiplier effects.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

50202 - Applied Economics, Econometrics

Projekt

—

Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2021

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Quarterly Journal of Economics

ISSN

0033-5533

e-ISSN

1531-4650

Svazek periodika

136

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

3

Stát vydavatele periodika

US - Spojené státy americké

Počet stran výsledku

56

Strana od-do

1831-1886

Kód UT WoS článku

000672777600010

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85110618736