Primary Sources
Does a large number of siblings vying for parental resources and attention hurt a child's chances for success later in life? Researchers recently investigated this question by looking at a variety of families in Israel. They found that the presence of a third child (or more than three children) had little effect on the long-term educational attainment, adult earnings, and marriage and fertility rates of first- and second-born children; the only noticeable difference was that first-born daughters tended to marry sooner if they came from large families—perhaps, the authors speculate, out of a desire to escape the crowd. They also speculate that parents may adjust to additional children by cutting down on luxuries and leisure activities rather than on time with their children—or, alternately, that large families may be more likely to have stay-at-home moms, who make up for some of the otherwise scarcer parental attention.
—"New Evidence on the Causal Link Between the Quantity and Quality of Children," J. Angrist, V. Lavy, and A. Schlosser, NBER
It pays to be tall, according to a study in the Journal of Political Economy: the median wage of the tallest quarter of white male adults in both the United States and Great Britain is 13 percent higher than that of the shortest quarter. But what really pays, the study suggests, is being tall during the teen years. White men who were shorter than average as teenagers typically earn less than those who were taller, regardless of their eventual adult heights. In fact, the wage disparity between tall and short white men essentially disappears once teenage height is controlled for. The authors speculate that short teens may be "stigmatized because of their stature" and therefore have a harder time developing social skills and a positive self-image. The study also dealt with the economic benefits of human growth hormone treatments for shorter-than-average 10-year-old boys. Assessing the cost of a six-year HGH regimen (about $135,000) against the higher wages earned by men who were tall as teenagers, the authors concluded that such treatment would pay for itself only for boys who go on to make more than $105,000 a year as adults—although they allow that greater height carries "benefits … that are not pecuniary."
—"The Effect of Adolescent Experience on Labor Market Outcomes: The Case of Height," N. Persico, A. Postlewaite, and D. Silverman, Journal of Political Economy
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A study of health care in twenty-one OECD nations reveals that in most countries, between 70 and 90 percent of the population visits a doctor at least once a year; the exceptions are the United States (68 percent), Greece (63 percent), and Mexico (21 percent). However, the average number of visits a person makes each year varies widely. For example, the typical German or Hungarian sees a doctor more than seven times annually, while the typical Dane, Norwegian, or American does so only four times. The researchers found little to explain the variation, attributing it, at least in part, to "cultural differences in seeking medical advice or care."
—"Inequalities in Access to Medical Care by Income in Developed Countries," E. van Doorslaer, C. Masseria, and X. Koolman, Canadian Medical Association Journal
There's plenty of debate about "school choice," but perhaps parents and other interested parties should worry more about "teacher choice—"that is, principals' ability to hire the best teachers they can find. A recent study from the New Teacher Project, which collected data on staffing at five major urban school districts around the country, discovered that 40 percent of teacher vacancies were filled by "voluntary transfers" (incumbent teachers exercising contract- mandated transfer options) and "excessed" teachers (teachers whose jobs were cut and who generally must, according to union rules, be hired before other candidates). According to the study, many of the teachers hired in these instances are "poor performers" and are "passed around from school to school instead of being terminated." Principals, of course, are unhappy about this state of affairs. In one district, 64 percent of principals at schools that added such teachers in the last year said that they wished they had not hired them, and 26 percent rated "all or almost all" of the excessed teachers who came on board as "unsatisfactory." Some principals even admitted to hiding vacancies in order to avoid unwanted hires; for example, a principal might wait to post a job opening until after all the transfers and excessed teachers in the district have been assigned.
—"Unintended Consequences: The Case for Reforming the Staffing Rules in Urban Teachers' Union Contracts," J. Levin, J. Mulhern, and J. Schunck, New Teacher Project
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