TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bras, Hilde
A1  - Kok, Jan
A1  - Mandemakers, Kees
T1  - Sibship size and status attainment across contexts: Evidence from the Netherlands, 1840-1925
Y1  - 2010/07/13
JF  - Demographic Research
JO  - Demographic Research
SN  - 1435-9871
SP  - 73
EP  - 104
DO  - 10.4054/DemRes.2010.23.4
VL  - S10
IS  - 4
UR  - https://www.demographic-research.org/special/10/4/
L1  - https://www.demographic-research.org/special/10/4/s10-4.pdf
L2  - https://www.demographic-research.org/special/10/4/s10-4.pdf
N2  - This paper investigates the effects of sibship size on status attainment across different contexts and subgroups. Resource dilution theory predicts that with larger sibship size, children’s status outcomes fall. However, the empirical record has shown that this is not always the case. In this paper we have tested three alternative hypotheses for neutral or even positive effects of sibship size on status attainment on the basis of a large-scale registry database covering the period of industrialization and fertility decline in the Netherlands in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century. Our findings offer support for the family developmental cycle, buffering by kin groups, and socio-economic development as alternative explanations to the resource dilution hypothesis.

ER  -