Sibling Spillovers in Rural China: A Story of Sisters

Cynthia Bansak (St. Lawrence University); Xuan Jiang (Jinan University); Guanyi Yang (Colorado College)
Published article · China Economic Review, Vol. 76, 101873. DOI 10.1016/j.chieco.2022.101873
Theme: Children, families and schooling in rural China

In rural China, each year a younger sibling spends in school raises the elder sibling’s Chinese test score by 1.42 percentage points, and by 2.26 points when the younger sibling is a girl; there is no significant effect when the younger sibling is a boy. The channel appears to be a more academic home environment rather than more parental spending or attention.

Abstract

We study sibling spillover effects on the school performance of the elder sibling from the younger sibling using data on multi-children households in rural China. Using a cumulative measure of expected lawful years in school as an instrumental variable, we find a significant increase in school test scores for Chinese language of elder siblings for every year of schooling of the younger sibling. The strongest spillover effects occur when the younger sibling is a girl. Such increases in test scores come from a more intense academic atmosphere within a household when both children enroll in school and are not attributed to differential parental education investments or time inputs. Our findings suggest that policies promoting girls’ education, pre-elementary school age education programs, and after school public resources can have multiplier effects through sibling spillovers.

What this paper shows

Preferred IV estimate: +1.42 percentage points on the elder sibling’s Chinese score (100-point scale) per year the younger sibling is in school; math effects are positive but not statistically significant.
Younger sister: +2.26 points per year (significant at 5 percent). Younger brother: no significant effect.
Narrowing the younger sibling’s age window to 5–8 raises the estimate to as much as 4.93 points; OLS estimates are near zero, consistent with downward bias.
The spillover is 3.1 points smaller per year when the elder child’s school is farther than the median distance from home, supporting a home-environment mechanism.
No change in education spending on the elder child or in parental presence when the younger child starts school.
First-stage Kleibergen-Paap F statistic above 140.

What it does not show

Sample of 346 elder children from two-child households in the RUMiC Rural Household Survey (2008–2009), nine provinces; small sample limits subgroup analysis.
Test scores are self-reported (though recorded in school booklets); only Chinese results are statistically significant.
The home-environment mechanism is inferred from school-home distance, not from observed study time.

Context and definitions

The direction of the spillover is younger to elder, the reverse of most of the sibling-spillover literature.
The instrument is lawful years of schooling implied by China’s Compulsory Education Law cutoff: children must turn six by August 31 to enroll that September.
Earlier versions circulated as “Sibling Spillover in Rural China: A Story of Sisters and Daughters” (IZA Discussion Paper 13127; EdWorkingPaper 21-465).

Data, method, contribution

Data: Rural Household Survey of the Longitudinal Survey on Rural Urban Migration in China (RUMiC), 2008 and 2009 waves; two-child households with the younger sibling aged 3–9 in 2008; Chinese and math exam scores standardized to 100.
Method: Two-stage least squares using cumulative lawful years of schooling (from the August 31 birth-date cutoff) as the instrument for the younger sibling’s actual years in school; grade, province and ethnicity fixed effects; parental age, wages and education; county girl ratio; standard errors clustered at the city level.
What is new: The first study to estimate a school-performance spillover from a younger sibling to an elder sibling, and to show it is driven by younger sisters, in a low-income setting.

Who this is for

Economists of education and family economics
Development economists working on China, gender and schooling
Researchers on peer effects and intra-household externalities
Girls’-education policy analysts

Questions this paper answers

Do younger siblings affect older siblings’ school performance?

Yes. When a younger sibling starts school, the elder sibling’s Chinese test score rises by about 1.4 percentage points per year of the younger sibling’s schooling. The effect comes from the younger sibling being in school, not from parents spending more on the elder child.

Why sisters?

Girls in the sample score higher with less dispersion in both subjects, the literature the paper cites finds girls begin school better prepared and spend more time on homework, and the estimated spillover runs through the home academic environment. A younger sister in school raises the elder sibling’s Chinese score by 2.26 points per year; a younger brother has no detectable effect.

Related work this paper speaks to

Black, S. E., S. Breining, D. N. Figlio, J. Guryan, K. Karbownik, H. S. Nielsen, J. Roth and M. Simonsen (2021). Sibling spillovers. Economic Journal 131(633): 101–128 (online 2020). doi:10.1093/ej/ueaa074
Qureshi, J. A. (2018). Siblings, teachers, and spillovers on academic achievement. Journal of Human Resources 53(1): 272–297. doi:10.3368/jhr.53.1.0815-7347r1
Joensen, J. S. and H. S. Nielsen (2018). Spillovers in education choice. Journal of Public Economics 157: 158–183. doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2017.10.006
Biavaschi, C., C. Giulietti and K. F. Zimmermann (2015). Sibling influence on the human capital of the left-behind. Journal of Human Capital 9(4): 403–438. doi:10.1086/683543
Jakiela, P., O. Ozier, L. Fernald and H. Knauer (2020). Big sisters. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9454. doi:10.1596/1813-9450-9454
Yang, G. and C. Bansak (2020). Does wealth matter? An assessment of China’s rural-urban migration on the education of left-behind children. China Economic Review 59: 101365. doi:10.1016/j.chieco.2019.101365

Versions and links

Classification

JEL I21JEL I24JEL J13JEL J16JEL O15

The journal record prints E24, C68 and J30, which are macroeconomics codes that do not describe this paper. The codes listed here are a corrected classification used on this page.

human capitalpeer effectsibling spilloverrural Chinasistersgirlsschool enrollmentintra-household allocationintra-household externality

Also searched as peer effects within families, younger-to-older sibling spillovers, girls’ education externalities, and the Chinese compulsory education entry-age cutoff.

Cite this

Cynthia Bansak, Xuan Jiang, Guanyi Yang (2022). Sibling Spillovers in Rural China: A Story of Sisters. China Economic Review, Vol. 76, 101873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2022.101873

@article{bansak2022sibling,
  title={Sibling Spillovers in Rural China: A Story of Sisters},
  author={Cynthia Bansak and Xuan Jiang and Guanyi Yang},
  journal={China Economic Review},
  year={2022},
  note={Vol. 76, 101873},
  doi={10.1016/j.chieco.2022.101873}
}