There is a negative correlation between quantity and quality of children
across countries and across households within a country. However,
because parents simultaneously choose the quantity and quality
of their children, the observed correlation between family size and child
outcomes cannot be interpreted as causal. This paper exploits exogenous
changes in family size caused by relaxations in China’s One Child
Policy to estimate the effect of family size on school enrollment. Specifically,
it uses the relaxation which allows a rural household to have a
second child if the first is a girl. First, it shows that the “1-son-2-child”
rule increased family size for first born girls. Second, it uses this exogenous
increase in family size to find that an additional sibling increases
school enrollment of the first child by 8-17%.