Sibling Spillover Effects in School Achievement

43 Pages Posted: 22 Nov 2014

See all articles by Cheti Nicoletti

Cheti Nicoletti

University of York - Department of Economics and Related Studies

Birgitta Rabe

University of Essex - Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)

Abstract

We provide the first empirical evidence on direct sibling spillover effects in school achievement using English administrative data. Our identification strategy exploits the variation in school test scores across three subjects observed at age 11 and 16 and the variation in the composition of school mates between siblings. These two sources of variation have been separately used to identify school peer effects, but never in combination. By combining them we are able to identify a sibling spillover effect that is net of unobserved child, family and school characteristics shared by siblings. We find a modest spillover effect from the older sibling to the younger but not vice versa. This effect is considerably higher for siblings from deprived backgrounds, where sibling sharing of school knowledge might compensate for the lack of parental information.

Keywords: family effects, peer effects, social interaction, education

JEL Classification: I22, I24

Suggested Citation

Nicoletti, Cheti and Rabe, Birgitta, Sibling Spillover Effects in School Achievement. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8615, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2529324 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2529324

Cheti Nicoletti (Contact Author)

University of York - Department of Economics and Related Studies ( email )

Heslington
York, YO1 5DD
United Kingdom

Birgitta Rabe

University of Essex - Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) ( email )

Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom

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