Risk preferences and sibling sex composition

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics by first-borns’ sex.

		Female		Male
Variable	Description	Mean	Std	Mean	Std
Sex SB	Second-born sister (0)	0.51	0.50	0.50	0.50
	or brother (1)
Age	Age of the	30.20	4.81	30.06	4.72
	individuals
	in the sample
Age difference	Difference in age	3.98	2.41	3.90	2.26
	between siblings
ARA (std)	Absolute risk	0.233	0.736	−0.281	1.201
	aversion (Arrow-
	Pratt)
General risk	Willingness to take	5.595	1.984	5.742	2.138
	risk from 1 to 10.

Notes: This table shows the means and standard deviations of the variables used in the analyses in this paper. ARA (std) is a measure of absolute risk aversion which is standardized on the sample of first-born men and women that are included in the analyses.

Table 2. Effects of having a brother compared to a sister on first-borns’ risk preferences.

	Women		Men
Age difference		$\le 5$		$\le 5$
Dep Var: ARA (std)	b/se	b/se	b/se	b/se
Sex SB	−0.236	−0.399 ${ }^{\ast \ast }$	0.0638	−0.175
	(0.150)	(0.163)	(0.202)	(0.349)
Sex SB x Age Difference	0.0463	0.0950 ${ }^{\ast \ast }$	−0.0392	0.0471
	(0.0405)	(0.0471)	(0.0443)	(0.109)
Age difference	−0.0500 ${ }^{\ast }$	−0.0519	0.0350	−0.00285
	(0.0265)	(0.0329)	(0.0319)	(0.0742)
Constant	0.455 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$	0.454 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$	−0.366	−0.261
	(0.0890)	(0.0965)	(0.132)	(0.222)
Observations	613	511	508	424
$R^2$	0.013	0.012	0.003	0.001

Notes: The dependent variable is a measure of absolute risk aversion which is increasing in risk aversion. Sex SB is equal to one if the second-born sibling is male and zero otherwise, Age difference is the spacing, in birth years, between the two first-born siblings and Sex SB x Age Difference is their interaction. * $p<0.1$, ** $p<0.05$ and *** $p<0.01$. Robust standard errors in parentheses.

Table A1. Balancing tests on parental characteristics by first-born’s sex.

		Sister	Brother
Variable	Description	Mean	Mean	Difference	p-value
First-born women
Siblings	Number of siblings	1.080	1.114	−0.034	0.753
People in residence	Number of people in parent’s residence	4.538	4.581	−0.042	0.625
Birth year	Year of birth	1953.964	1953.906	0.057	0.085
Parent’s attitudes
Maths-Tech	‘Boys are much better at math and technical subjects than girls’	2.776	2.735	0.040	0.659
Work hard	‘People expect girls to be more hard-working and diligent than boys’	1.453	1.456	−0.003	0.960
School	‘Children are responsible for learning anything in school’	3.642	3.576	0.066	0.295
First-born men
Siblings	Number of siblings	1.162	1.097	0.065	0.584
People in residence	Number of people in parent’s residence	4.682	4.585	0.097	0.305
Birth year	Year of birth	1953.961	1953.913	0.047	0.186
Parent’s attitudes
Maths-Tech	‘Boys are much better at math and technical subjects than girls’	2.782	2.791	−0.009	0.933
Work hard	‘People expect girls to be more hard-working and diligent than boys’	1.413	1.496	−0.083	0.188
School	‘Children are responsible for learning anything in school’	3.660	3.634	0.025	0.703

Notes: This table shows descriptive statistics on characteristics of the parent participating in the original survey in 1968, thus prior to the birth of the second-born child. Answers to the questions regarding attitudes have the following labels: 1 ‘Strongly agree’, 2 ‘Agree’, 3 ‘Disagree’, 4 ‘Strongly disagree’. Missing status on these variables does not predict the sex of the second-born, neither individually, nor jointly (F = 0.31).

Table B1. Effect of having a brother compared to a sister on first-borns’ risk preferences: Willingness to pay for a lottery ticket.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
Dep Var: WTP Lottery	b/se	b/se	b/se	b/se
Sex SB	442.6	327.8 ${ }^{\ast \ast }$	478.3	915.3
	(321.9)	(136.2)	(467.3)	(1127.6)
Sex SB x Age Difference	−131.4	−74.14 ${ }^{\ast \ast }$	−27.26	−175.4
	(108.1)	(36.92)	(78.53)	(315.3)
Age difference	152.1	40.23	−25.49	17.83
	(99.07)	(25.55)	(24.59)	(65.61)
Constant	−201.0	104.1	750.4 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$	631.0 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$
	(279.9)	(75.51)	(101.6)	(179.3)
Observations	613	511	508	424
$R^2$	0.025	0.010	0.008	0.008

Table C1. Effects of having a brother compared to a sister on willingness to take risks in life.

	Women		Men
Age difference		$\le 5$		$\le 5$
Dep Var: General Risk	b/se	b/se	b/se	b/se
Sex SB	−0.000666	−0.746	−0.274	−0.233
	(0.325)	(0.536)	(0.400)	(0.606)
Sex SB x Age Difference	0.000450	0.241	0.0927	0.112
	(0.0731)	(0.158)	(0.0913)	(0.180)
Age difference	0.0405	−0.135	−0.0436	−0.215
	(0.0569)	(0.115)	(0.0728)	(0.134)
Constant	5.433 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$	5.959 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$	5.851 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$	6.318 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$
	(0.244)	(0.389)	(0.294)	(0.430)
Observations	612	510	507	423
$R^2$	0.002	0.005	0.003	0.008

Notes: The effect of the second-born’s sex on the risk preferences of first-born women (columns 1 and 2) and men (columns 3 and 4). The dependent variable is the answer to the question ‘Do you see yourself as a person who is willing to take risks in order to achieve something in life, or do you see yourself as somebody who prefers to avoid risk?’, where 1 = ‘ Avoid risks’ and 10 = ‘Are willing to take risks’. Sex SB is equal to one if the second-born sibling is male and zero otherwise, Age difference is the spacing, in birth years, between the two first-born siblings and Sex SB x Age Difference is their interaction. * $p<0.1$, ** $p<0.05$ and *** $p<0.01$. Robust standard errors in parentheses.

Table D1. Effects of children’s sex on family size.

	Full sample	First-born women	First-born men
Dep Var: Number of children	b/se	b/se	b/se
Sex FB	−0.00991
	(0.0399)
Sex SB		0.0268	0.118 ${ }^{\ast \ast }$
		(0.0541)	(0.0584)
Constant	2.400 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$	2.386 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$	2.331 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$
	(0.0271)	(0.0362)	(0.0383)
Observations	1121	613	508
$R^2$	0.000	0.000	0.008

Notes: This table shows the effect of childrens’ sex on the total number of children. In all three columns the dependent variable is the total number of children in the family. Sex FB is equal to one if the first-born is male and zero otherwise. Sex SB is equal to one if the second-born child is male and zero otherwise. The regressions in columns 2 and 3 are run on the sample of first-born women and first-born men, respectively. * $p<0.1$, ** $p<0.05$ and *** $p<0.01$. Robust standard errors in parentheses.

Table D2. Effects of having a brother compared to a sister on first-borns’ risk preferences, conditional on the size of the sibling group.

	Women		Men
Dep Var: ARA (std)	b/se	b/se	b/se	b/se
Sex SB	−0.469 ${ }^{\ast \ast }$	−0.403 ${ }^{\ast \ast }$	−0.523	−0.152
	(0.232)	(0.164)	(0.468)	(0.351)
Sex SB x Age Difference	0.114 ${ }^{\ast }$	0.0962 ${ }^{\ast \ast }$	0.133	0.0484
	(0.0622)	(0.0471)	(0.131)	(0.108)
Age difference	−0.0680	−0.0491	−0.0116	−0.0305
	(0.0439)	(0.0338)	(0.0870)	(0.0744)
Number of children		0.0202		−0.210 ${ }^{\ast \ast }$
		(0.0392)		(0.0892)
Constant	0.503 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$	0.397 ${ }^{\ast \ast \ast }$	−0.137	0.316
	(0.136)	(0.153)	(0.270)	(0.331)
Observations	343	511	285	424
$R^2$	0.012	0.012	0.007	0.014

Notes: This table shows the effect of second-born’s sex on the risk preferences of first-born women (columns 1 and 2) and men (columns 3 and 4) in families where the age difference between the two is equal to or less than 5 years. The dependent variable is a measure of absolute risk aversion which is increasing in risk aversion. Sex SB is equal to one if the second-born sibling is male and zero otherwise, Age difference is the spacing, in birth years, between the two first-born siblings and Sex SB x Age Difference is their interaction. * $p<0.1$, ** $p<0.05$ and *** $p<0.01$. Robust standard errors in parentheses.

Notes: This figure displays the effect size of the having asecond-born brother, compared to asister, on the risk preferences of first-born women. The X-axis measures the difference inyears between the first-born and thesecond-born, while the Y-axis measures the effect on the absolute risk aversion of the first-born.