The impact of family size on child investment in Thailand: Revisiting with an alternative approach

Abstract

Most economics research have concentrated on testing the quality–quantity (QQ) model through the relationship between family size and children's schooling. Much less effort has been given to comparing the child quality and child quantity income elasticities. Using the Thai household socioeconomic panel surveys, this paper examines the trade-off between the quality and quantity of children by comparing the child quality and child quantity income elasticities. According to the theoretical prediction, the results showed that quality income elasticity was evidently higher than quantity income elasticity. Moreover, quality income elasticity was higher than quantity income elasticity even if permanent income was also controlled.