Visiting Speaker Seminar - Stephane Mechoulan, Dalhousie University

Title: "Intra-household Allocation of Family Resources and Birth Order: Evidence from France using Siblings Data" Abstract: We examine the effect of birth order on education, occupation and parental transfers using four cross sections of the Wealth surveys conducted in France between 1992 and 2010. Estimates from ordered models confirm the presence of a first born advantage in education and occupation, the latter persisting after controlling for education. Strikingly, parents are, on average, more likely to make transfers to first born children although giving to all siblings remains by far the norm among the minority of families where such transfers are observed. Overall, our findings suggest that in France the mechanism supporting the first born advantage may not stem from confluence effects or family resource dilution. Keywords: Birth order, education, occupation, siblings, intergenerational transfers Classification JEL: D1, I2