title: Later-borns Don't Give Up: The Temporary Effects of Birth Order on European Earnings.
abstract: The existing empirical evidence on the effects of birth order on wages does not distinguish between temporary and permanent effects. Using data from 11 European countries for males born between 1935 and 1956, we show that firstborns enjoy on average a 13.7% premium in their entry wage compared with later-borns. This advantage, however, is short-lived and disappears 10 years after labor market entry. Although firstborns start with a better job, partially because of their higher education, later-borns quickly catch up by switching earlier and more frequently to better-paying jobs. We argue that a key factor driving our findings is that later-borns have lower risk aversion than firstborns.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Management "M. Fanno,", University of Padova, via del Santo 33, 35123, Padova, Italy. marco.bertoni@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bertoni
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Management "M. Fanno,", University of Padova, via del Santo 33, 35123, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brunello
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001722:Birth Order / Q000523:psychology; D004522:Educational Status; D005060:Europe; D005191:Family Characteristics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008423:Maternal Age; D008875:Middle Aged; D018803:Models, Economic; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Birth order; Earnings; Europe; Risk aversion