Family Disadvantage and the Gender Gap in Behavioral and Educational Outcomes

J16 ddc:330 4. Education J12 I24 05 social sciences J13 gender gap education and inequality 5. Gender equality 0502 economics and business early skills development family structure 10. No inequality 0503 education
DOI: 10.1257/app.20170571 Publication Date: 2019-06-27T12:49:40Z
ABSTRACT
Boys born to disadvantaged families have higher rates of disciplinary problems, lower achievement scores, and fewer high school completions than girls from comparable backgrounds. Using birth certificates matched to schooling records for Florida children born 1992–2002, we find that family disadvantage disproportionately impedes the pre-market development of boys. The differential effect of family disadvantage on boys is robust to specifications within schools and neighborhoods as well as across siblings within families. Evidence supports that this is the effect of the postnatal environment; family disadvantage is unrelated to the gender gap in neonatal health. We conclude that the gender gap among black children is larger than among white children in substantial part because black children are raised in more disadvantaged families. (JEL D91, I24, I32, J13, J15, J16)
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