The effect of birth order on children's time use
Black, Nicole ; Jayawardana, Danusha and Heckley, Gawain LU
(2026)
In Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
242.
- Abstract
Recent research shows that birth order affects human capital outcomes, yet there is limited empirical evidence on the underlying mechanisms. This study examines the effect of birth order on children's time use across activities that are important for human capital development. Using detailed time-use diaries of Australian children aged 2–15, we find that within families with two or three children, later-born children spend less time on enrichment activities and more on digital media, compared to first-born children. We obtain the same findings when we repeat the analysis using detailed time-use diaries of US children. Further investigation reveals that part of the birth order effect is driven by parents spending less time with... (More)
Recent research shows that birth order affects human capital outcomes, yet there is limited empirical evidence on the underlying mechanisms. This study examines the effect of birth order on children's time use across activities that are important for human capital development. Using detailed time-use diaries of Australian children aged 2–15, we find that within families with two or three children, later-born children spend less time on enrichment activities and more on digital media, compared to first-born children. We obtain the same findings when we repeat the analysis using detailed time-use diaries of US children. Further investigation reveals that part of the birth order effect is driven by parents spending less time with later-born children compared to first-borns. However, later-borns also independently devote less of their own time to enrichment activities, suggesting that personal time use may be an important mechanism behind the well-documented impact of birth order on human capital development. We find evidence that later-born children experience more lenient parenting, which may help explain this pattern of own time use.
(Less)
- author
- Black, Nicole
; Jayawardana, Danusha
and Heckley, Gawain
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-02
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Birth order, Children's time use, Human capital development
- in
- Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
- volume
- 242
- article number
- 107418
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105028719913
- ISSN
- 0167-2681
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jebo.2026.107418
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d7b2c53e-6baa-4571-84c0-8490ed730359
- date added to LUP
- 2026-02-19 10:23:58
- date last changed
- 2026-02-19 10:25:10
@article{d7b2c53e-6baa-4571-84c0-8490ed730359,
abstract = {{<p>Recent research shows that birth order affects human capital outcomes, yet there is limited empirical evidence on the underlying mechanisms. This study examines the effect of birth order on children's time use across activities that are important for human capital development. Using detailed time-use diaries of Australian children aged 2–15, we find that within families with two or three children, later-born children spend less time on enrichment activities and more on digital media, compared to first-born children. We obtain the same findings when we repeat the analysis using detailed time-use diaries of US children. Further investigation reveals that part of the birth order effect is driven by parents spending less time with later-born children compared to first-borns. However, later-borns also independently devote less of their own time to enrichment activities, suggesting that personal time use may be an important mechanism behind the well-documented impact of birth order on human capital development. We find evidence that later-born children experience more lenient parenting, which may help explain this pattern of own time use.</p>}},
author = {{Black, Nicole and Jayawardana, Danusha and Heckley, Gawain}},
issn = {{0167-2681}},
keywords = {{Birth order; Children's time use; Human capital development}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization}},
title = {{The effect of birth order on children's time use}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2026.107418}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.jebo.2026.107418}},
volume = {{242}},
year = {{2026}},
}