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Research Master Pre-Defense

Sibling Spillovers on Study Choices: Evidence from Admission Lotteries


  • Location
    Tinbergen Institute Amsterdam, room 1.02
    Amsterdam
  • Date and time

    August 29, 2022
    12:30 - 13:30

This paper studies whether older siblings influence the study choices of younger siblings. I develop a simple theoretical model to separately identify spillover effects from shared preferences. I use Dutch random admission lotteries to medical school as a source of exogenous variation. I find that 70% of siblings’ common study choices are due to sibling spillovers, and the remaining 30% are due to common preferences. I argue that parental time and financial investment in children is likely the driving force of sibling spillovers.