The Effect Of The Number Of Siblings On The Individual Educational Attainment

The rapid growth of human capital is a great impetus for the development of social economy.Educational level,as an important indicator of human capital,is influenced by the number of compatriots.Due to the limited family resources,the increase in the number of siblings leads to a corresponding decrease in the family resources allocated to a single child,thus negatively affecting the educational level of the child.Therefore,it is necessary for parents to make a balance between the quantity and quality of children.Secondly,the sibling structure also affects the individual’s educational level,with the existence of elder preference and younger preference.In addition,there are gender differences,urban-rural differences and time differences in the number of compatriots on individual educational level.This paper uses the 2008 Chinese social survey data(CGSS2008)to explore the influence of the number of compatriots on the educational level of individuals.From the number of compatriots,the structure of compatriots,gender differences,urban-rural differences,time differences,this paper discusses the influence of the number of compatriots on the education level of individuals.Firstly,this paper studies the influence of the number of compatriots on the educational level of individuals.It is proved that the number of compatriots has a crowding out effect on the family educational resources,an individual who has more compatriots tends to obtain lower educational resources.Secondly,the author studies the influence of sibling structure on the educational level of individuals,and discusses that the oldest and youngest children can have more family resources,they get more education comparing their compatriots,and the negative effect of sibling number on the individual education is smaller.The results demonstrate that there are two kinds of preferences in the allocation of family educational resources: the preference of the younger is stronger than the preference of the older.Thirdly,this paper discusses the gender difference in the number of compatriots on the educational level.Among them,influenced by the preference for sons and the rate of return on education,the negative effect of the number of female compatriots on the individual’s educational level is greater than that of men.Fourthly,this paper discusses the difference between urban and rural areas in the influence of the number of compatriots on the educational level of individuals,the educational cost in urban area is much higher than in rural area.Fifth,this paper also discusses in depth the change of the number of compatriots on the impact of individual educational level before and after the reform and opening-up,as well as the change of the gender difference in the effect of compatriot education.The regression results show that after the reform and opening-up,the negative influence of the number of compatriots on the educational level of individuals increases,but the gender difference is obviously reduced.Sixth,this paper further examines the robustness of the conclusion that the number of compatriots has a negative impact on the level of education of individuals by substitution variables and using the data from the 2016 Chinese household tracking survey(CFPS2016).In addition,the instrumental variable method is used to solve the endogeneity problem.Based on this,this paper puts forward the following policy recommendations.First,the government increases the investment in public education resources to reduce the uneven distribution of family education resources.The government should make up for the lack of family education resources,so as to have a positive impact on the education level of individuals.Especially in the period of the comprehensive implementation of the "two-child policy",the government needs to guarantee the positive growth of national quantity and quality through education policies.Second,the government should invest more educational resources in rural areas,narrow the gap between urban and rural areas,and give full play to the role of education in poverty alleviation.Third,on the basis of remarkable achievements in reform and opening up,we should further emancipate our minds and reduce gender discrimination in education.We will reduce discrimination against women in the job market and give full play to their positive role in society.