Heterogenous Impacts of Sibship Size on Educational Attainment Across Countries – Results from Meta-Analysis

The literature reports a negative relationship between the number of siblings and educational outcomes in the US and Western Europe but the pattern is less clear in several other countries. Some researchers have argued that the availability of relatives, who share the costs of childrearing by providing care and covering financial costs, can offset the dilution of parental resources. We expect that the same mechanism applies to the role of state: the state policy may provide services and funds that support parents in raising and educating children. As a result, the inverse relationship between sibship size and educational outcomes should be weaker or even not apparent in countries that implement such policies. We test this hypothesis by conducting a meta-analysis of available studies on the relationship between sibship size and education. Our study contributes to the on-going debate on the way the institutional and cultural context shapes individual educational opportunities.