Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Do children from small families do better?

  • Published:
Journal of Population Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The education, income, wealth and satisfaction with life of australians aged 25–54 are examined in relation to the circumstances of their childhood, paying particular attention to variation by number of siblings when growing up. The data are from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survery. Educational attainment, income earned and household wealth tend to be greater for people who grew up in relatively small families. The effect of the number of siblings on educational attainment is greater for females than for males. However the advantages of growing up in a smaller family do not translate into higher levels of satisfaction with life. The implications of the findings for the public debate on fertility and child-related benefits in Australia are discussed, as are the implications of a child-quality-child-quantity trade-off for the explanation of fertility levels in more developed countries.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ahlburg, Dennis A., Allen C. Kelley and Karen Oppenheim Mason. 1996.The Impact of Population Growth on Well-Being in Developing Countries. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). 2005.The Health and Welfare of Australias Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples 2005. Canberra: AGPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Axinn, William G., Marin E. Clarkberg and Arland Thornton. 1994. Family influences on family size preferences.Demography 31 (1): 65–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Gary S. 1981.A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Gary S. and Robert J. Barro. 1988. A reformulation of the economic theory of fertility.Quarterly Journal of Economics C3(1): 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Gary S. and H. Gregg Lewis. 1973. On the interaction between the quantity and quality of children.Journal of Political Economy 81(2): 279–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Gary S. and Kevin M. Murphy. 2000.Social Economics: Market Behavior in a Social Environment. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berrington, Ann and Ian Diamond. 1999. Marital dissolution among the 1958 British birth cohort: the role of cohabitation.Population Studies 53(1): 19–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birrell, Bob and Siew-Ean Khoo. 1995.The Second Generation in Australia: Educational and Occupational Outcomes. Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research Statistical Report No. 14. Canberra: AGPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blake, Judith, 1968. Are babies consumer durables? A critique of the economic theory of reproductive motivation.Population Studies 22(1): 5–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blake, Judith. 1981, Family size and the quality of children.Demography 18(4): 421–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blake, Judith. 1989.Family Size and Achievement. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breusch, Trevor and Edith Gray. 2004a. New estimates of mothers forgone earnings using HILDA data.Australian Journal of Labour Economics 7(2): 125–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breusch, Trevor and Edith Gray. 2004b. Does marriage improve the wages of men and women in Australia? Paper presented to 12th Biennial Conference of the Australian Population Association, Canberra, 15–17 September. <http://acsr.anu.edu.au/APA2004/papers/7D_Breusch.pdf>.Accessed:2005.

  • Caldwell, John C. 1982.Theory of Fertility Decline. London: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, Bruce, Yvonne Dunlop, Matthew Gray, Amy Liu and Deborah Mitchell. 2001. The impact of children on the lifetime earnings of Australian women: evidence from the 1990s.Australian Economic Record 34(4): 373–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craig, Lyn 2003. The time cost of children: a cross-national comparison of the interaction between time use and fertility rate. Paper presented to 25th IATUR Conference on Time Use Research Comparing Time, Brussels, 17–19 September.

  • Craig, Lyn and Michael Bittman. 2003. The time costs of Children in Australia. Paper presented to Rethinking Expenditures on Children: Towards an International Research Agenda, Australian National University, Canberra, 15–16 January.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crimmins, Eileen M. and Richard A. Easterlin. 2000. What goals motivate individual behavior? Pp. 159–168 in K. Warner Schaie and John Hendricks (eds.),Social Structures and the Ageing Self. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Addio, Anna Cristina and Marco Mira d Ercole. 2005. Trends and determinants of fertility rates in OECD countries: the role of policies.OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 27. Paris: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodson, Louise. 2004. The mother of all spending sprees.Sydney Morning Herald 12 May: <http://www.smh.com.au>.Accessed: 2004.

  • Drew, Michael E. and Jon D. Stanford. 2003. A review of Australia s compulsory superannuation scheme after a decade.Queensland University of Technology Discussion Papers in Economics, Finance and International Competitiveness No. 127. Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, Otis Dudley, Ronald Freedman, J. Michael Coble and Doris P. Slesinger. 1965. Marital fertility and size of family of orientation.Demography 2(1–2): 508–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Easterlin, Richard A. 2005. Life cycle happiness and its sources. Paper presented to 2005 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Philadelphia, 31 March –2 April.

  • Headey, Bruce 2003. Income and wealth — facilitating multiple approaches to measurement and permitting different levels of aggregation.Hilda Project Technical Paper Series No 3/03. <http://www.melbourneinstitute. com/hilda/hdps07.pdf>.Accessed: 2005.

  • Headey, Bruce, Gary Marks and Mark Wooden. 2005. The structure and distribution of household wealth in Australia.Australian Economic Review 38(2): 159–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Headey, Bruce and Mark Wooden. 2005. The structure and distribution of household wealth in Australia.Australian Economic Review 38(2): 159–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Headey, Bruce and Mark Wooden. 2004. The effects of wealth and income on subjective well-being and ill-being.Economic Record 80 (Special Issue): S24-S33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henman, Paul, 2001.Updating Australian Budget Standards Costs of Children Estimates. Policy Research Paper No. 7. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Family and Community Services.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, B. 1999.Three Nations, Not One: Indigenous and Other Australian Poverty. Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research Working Paper No. 1/1999. Canberra: Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, Natalie. 2002. The Higher Education Contribution Scheme — A HECS on the family? Pp. 105–120 in G. A. Carmichael, and A. Dharmalingam (eds),Populations of New Zealand and Australia at the Millennium: A Joint Special Issue of the Journal of Population Research and New Zealand Population Review. Canberra and Wellington: Australian Population Association and Population Association of New Zealand.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Gavin W. 2004. The demography of disadvantage.Journal of Population Research 21(2): 107–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keister, Lisa A. 2003. Sharing the wealth: the effect of siblings on adults wealth ownership.Demography 40(3): 521–542.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, Allen C. 1996. The consequences of rapid population growth on human resource development: the case of education. Pp. 67–138 in D.A. Ahlburg, A.C. Kelley and K.O. Mason,The Impact of Population Growth on Well-Being in Developing Countries. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiernan, Kathleen E. 1989. Who remains childless?Journal of Biosocial Science 21(4): 387–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larkins, Frank P. 2001. The economic benefits of Australian university degrees: bachelor and research higher degrees.Australian Economic Review 34(4): 403–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marjoribanks, Kevin. 2002.Family, and School Capital: Towards a Context Theory of School Outcomes. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marks, Gary, Julie McMillan and Kylie Hillman. 2001.Tertiary Entrance Performance: the Role of Student Background and School Factors. Research Report No 22. Melbourne: Australian Council for Higher Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonald, Peter. 2000. Gender equity, social institutions and the future of fertility.Journal of Population Research 17(1): 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, M. and L.B. Knudsen. 2002. The intergenerational transmission of fertility in contemporary Denmark: the effects of number of siblings (full and half), birth order, and whether male or female.Population Studies 56(3): 235–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parr, Nicholas. 2002. Family planning promotion, contraceptive use and fertility decline in Ghana.African Population Studies 17(1): 83–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parr, Nicholas J. 2005. Family background, schooling and childlessness in Australia.Journal of Biosocial Science 37(2): 229–243.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parr, Nick and Fei Guo. 2005. The occupational concentration and mobility of Asian immigrants in Australia.Asian and Pacific Migration Review 14(3): 351–380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parr, Nick and Magdalena Mok. 1995. Differences in the educational achievements, aspirations and values of birthplace groups in New South Wales.People and Place 3(2): 1–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, Hyunjoon. 2005. Public policy and the effect of sibship size on educational achievement: a comparative study of 20 countries. Paper presented to 2005 Population Association of America Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, 31 March–2 April.

  • Percival, Richard and Ann Harding. 2002. All they need is love and around $450,000.AMP_NATSEM Income and Wealth Report Issue 3. Australia: AMP. <http://www.canberra.edu. au/centres/natsem/publications>.Accessed: 2004.

  • Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). 2000.Measuring Student Knowledge and Skills. Paris: OECD. <http://pisaweb.acer.edu.au/oecd/oecd_pisa_data.html>.Accessed: 2005.

  • Psacharopoulos, George and Harry Anthony Patrinos. 2004. Returns to investment in education: a further update.Education Economics 12(2): 111–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, Warren C. 1997. The economic theory of fertility over three decades.Population Studies 51(1): 63–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shields, Michael and Mark Wooden. 2003. Marriage, children and subjective well-being. Paper presented at Eighth Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference —Step Forward for Families: Research, Practice and Policy, Melbourne Exhibition Centre, 12–14 February. <http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/hbiblio-cp.html>.Accessed: 2004.

  • Watson, Nicole and Mark Wooden. 2002a. The HILDA Survey and its potential to contribute to population research: Paper presented to 11th Biennial Conference of the Australian Population Association, Sydney, 2–4 October. <http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/confpapern03.pdf>.Accessed: 2004.

  • Watson, Nicole and Mark Wooden. 2002b. The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey: Wave 1 survey methodology.Hilda Project Technical Paper Series No. 1/02. <http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/hdps-techn01.pdf>. Accessed: 2004.

  • Watson, Nicole and Mark Wooden. 2002c. Assessing the quality of the HILDA Survey Wave 1 data.Hilda Project Technical Paper Series No 4/02. <http://www.melbourneinstitute. com/hilda/hdps-techn04.pdf>.Accessed: 2004.

  • Weerasinghe, Daminda P. and Nicholas J. Parr. 2002. Effect of wealth on marital fertility in Sri Lanka.Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition 20(2): 112–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weston, Ruth, Lixia Qu, Robyn Parker and Michael Alexander. 2004.Its Not for Lack of Wanting Kids … A Report on the Fertility Decision Making Project. Research Report No. 11. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business, Division of Economic and Financial Studies, Macquarie University, 2109, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Nick Parr

Authors
  1. Nick Parr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nick Parr.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Parr, N. Do children from small families do better?. Journal of Population Research 23, 1–25 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03031865

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03031865

Keywords

Search

Navigation