The Effect of Child Endowment on Fertility Choices

Does the intellectual endowment of born children affect their parents’ future fertility choices? We study the effect of positive or negative shocks to child endowment on the intensive margin of fertility using data on intellectually gifted and intellectually disabled children. Because families with an exceptional-endowment child differ from those without, we propose quasi-experiments that exploit differences in the child’s birth order to estimate the effect of their birth on further fertility. We find that the birth of a gifted child increases family size. However, parents must be able to recognize the endowment’s exceptional ability for it to have an effect. Similarly, the birth of an intellectually disabled child negatively affects family size, but only when the child is of high birth order. Our results point to child endowment as an important factor in determining fertility choices.