Sisters, siblings, and mothers: the effect of teen-age childbearing on birth outcomes in a dynamic family context.

Abstract

"In this paper, we formulate a statistical model of dynamic intrafamily investment behavior incorporating endowment heterogeneity and heritability. We use the model's estimates to evaluate alternative estimation procedures that have exploited family and kinship data to obtain estimates of the determinants of human capital." The sequential decision-making framework developed is applied to data on birthweight and gestation of children born to mothers surveyed in the U.S. National Survey of Labor Market Experience youth cohort. "The empirical results imply that the least restrictive statistical formulation, consistent with dynamic behavior and heterogeneity among siblings, fits the data best. All of the estimation procedures that control for a family-specific endowment indicate, however, that the biological effect of having a birth at younger ages is to marginally increase birthweight and to increase fetal growth."