Search Results
Author: Kilburn, M. Rebecca
Resulting in 10 citations.
| 1. |
Datar, Ashlesha Kilburn, M. Rebecca Loughran, David S. |
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Endowments and Parental Investments in Infancy and Early Childhood Demography 47,1 (February 2010): 145-162. Also: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/demography/v047/47.1.datar.pdf Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Birthweight; Child Health; Human Capital; Infants; Mothers, Health; Parental Influences; Parents, Behavior; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Preschool Children; Siblings Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This article tests whether parents reinforce or compensate for child endowments. We estimate how the difference in birth weight across siblings impacts specific parental investments: breast-feeding, well-baby visits, immunizations, and preschool attendance. Our results indicate that normal-birthweight children are 5%–11% more likely to receive early childhood parental investments than their low-birth-weight siblings. Moreover, the presence of additional low-birth-weight siblings in the household increases the likelihood of investments such as well-baby visits and immunizations for normal-birth-weight children. These results suggest that parental investments in early childhood tend to reinforce endowment differences. |
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Bibliography Citation
Datar, Ashlesha, M. Rebecca Kilburn and David S. Loughran. "Endowments and Parental Investments in Infancy and Early Childhood." Demography 47,1 (February 2010): 145-162.
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| 2. |
Datar, Ashlesha Kilburn, M. Rebecca Loughran, David S. |
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Health Endowments and Parental Investments in Infancy and Early Childhood Working Paper WR-367, RAND Labor and Population Working Paper Series, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, March 2006. Also: http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/2006/RAND_WR367.pdf Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: RAND Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Birthweight; Breastfeeding; Family Characteristics; Head Start; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Preschool Children; Siblings This paper tests whether parents reinforce or compensate for child endowments. We employ birth weight as a proxy for endowments and estimate how the difference in birth weight across siblings impacts specific parental investments, including breastfeeding initiation and duration, well-baby visits, immunizations, preschool attendance, and kindergarten entry age. We also examine whether parental investment in a child is impacted by her siblings' endowments. Our results indicate that heavier birth weight children receive higher levels of most parental investment than their lower birth weight siblings suggesting that parental investments in infancy and early childhood reinforce differences in endowments. In one exception, we find weak evidence that lower birth weight children enter kindergarten slightly later than their normal birth weight siblings, which could be interpreted as a compensating parental investment. Presence of a low birth weight sibling in the household increases the likelihood of investments such as well-baby visits and immunizations. We use data from the NLSY-C, which contains detailed information about the children born to female respondents of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79). We first restrict our sample to mothers with at least two children surveyed between 1986-2000 with birth weight information available for at least one child. Next, we only keep children for whom there is information on at least one of the parental investments examined in the paper. This reduces the sample to 10,000 children born to 3,660 mothers. We exploit four key features of the NLSY-C for the purposes of this paper. First, the NLSY-C collects data on all children born to NLSY79 mothers, which allows us to examine intrafamily resource allocation decisions. Second, the NLSY-C collects data on birth weight for all surveyed children. The third key feature of the NLSY-C is that it collects information on a number of health and educational investments that parents make in their children starting in infancy and early childhood. Finally, the availability of information regarding maternal and family characteristics, and prenatal investments at the time of each sibling's birth is a unique feature of these data and allows us to control for such differences across siblings. Our analyses consider the following investments: (1) Initiation and duration (weeks) of breastfeeding (2) Whether the child was taken for a well-baby visit in the first year after birth (3) Whether the child received all doses of DPT and oral polio vaccines (4) Whether the child attended preschool (including Head Start) (5) Kindergarten entrance age (KEA) in months, and whether the child was held back from entering kindergarten even after he or she was eligible |
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Bibliography Citation
Datar, Ashlesha, M. Rebecca Kilburn and David S. Loughran. "Health Endowments and Parental Investments in Infancy and Early Childhood." Working Paper WR-367, RAND Labor and Population Working Paper Series, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, March 2006. |
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Kilburn, M. Rebecca Hanser, Lawrence M. Klerman, Jacob Alex |
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Estimating AFQT Scores for National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) Respondents Rand Monograph, MR-818-OSD/A. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 1998. Also: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/2009/MR818.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: RAND Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Military Enlistment; Military Recruitment; National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS); Test Scores/Test theory/IRT This is the first report of a two-part project that estimates the determinants of individual enlistment decisions using the 1992 and 1994 waves of the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS). The authors impute AFQT scores for NELS respondents using test scores reported in the 1992 NELS, test score trends from the 1978-1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and the sample in the 1980 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) that was used to norm the AFQT. Percentile scores on the NELS tests are equated to percentile scores on the AFQT in the NLSY with an adjustment to reflect test score trends observed in the NAEP over the period between 1980 and 1992. In addition to imputing AFQT scores for NELS respondents, the authors examine test score trends between 1980 and 1992 to draw implications for recruiting policy. There appears to be no justification for any concerns that a rising share of minorities in the youth population will result in a decline in the pot ential supply of youth. Even though minorities in the early 1990s continued to score lower than average on the AFQT, the growth in their population share was outweighed by their greater-than-average test score growth during the 1980s and early 1990s. The net result of these countervailing trends was that a larger fraction of minorities was estimated to be high-quality potential recruits and that the share of the entire senior population scoring in that range was largely unchanged. |
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Bibliography Citation
Kilburn, M. Rebecca, Lawrence M. Hanser and Jacob Alex Klerman. Estimating AFQT Scores for National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) Respondents. Rand Monograph, MR-818-OSD/A. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 1998.. |
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Kilburn, M. Rebecca Hanser, Lawrence M. Klerman, Jacob Alex |
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Estimating AFQT Scores for National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) Respondents Peace Research Abstracts Journal 37,4 (1 August 2000) Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Peace Research Institute - Dundas (Canada) Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Economics of Minorities; Military Recruitment; National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS); Racial Differences; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This is the first report of a two-part project that estimates the determinants of individual enlistment decisions using the 1992 and 1994 waves of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS). The authors estimate Air Force Qualification Test (AFQT) scores for NELS respondents using test scores reported in the 1992 NELS, test score trends from the 1978 to 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and the sample in the 1980 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) that was used to norm the AFQT. Percentile scores on the NELS tests are equated to percentile scores on the AFQT in the NLSY with an adjustment to reflect test score trends observed in the NAEP over the period 1980 to 1992. In addition to estimating AFQT scores for NELS respondents, the authors examine test score trends between 1980 and 1992 to draw implications for recruiting policy. The evidence suggests that concerns that a rising share of minorities in the youth population will result in a decline in the potential supply of high-quality youth are unwarranted. Even though minorities in the early 1990s continued to score lower than average on the AFQT, the growth in their population share was outweighed by their greater-than-average test score growth during the 1980s and early 1990s. The net result of these countervailing trends was that a larger fraction of minorities were estimated to be high-quality potential recruits and that the share of the entire high school senior population scoring in that range was largely unchanged. |
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Bibliography Citation
Kilburn, M. Rebecca, Lawrence M. Hanser and Jacob Alex Klerman. "Estimating AFQT Scores for National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) Respondents." Peace Research Abstracts Journal 37,4 (1 August 2000).
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Kilburn, M. Rebecca Loughran, David S. |
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Parental Investment and Later Outcomes Among Low Birthweight Children Presented: Minneapolis, MN, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2003 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Birthweight; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Modeling, Fixed Effects; Pairs (also see Siblings); Siblings; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Our paper has three principle objectives. Our first objective is to clarify how the omission of family and individual-level endowments can confound estimates of both the short and long-run consequences of low birthweight. In formal models, we highlight how various empirical strategies control for specific endowments and the effects these controls are likely to have on parameter estimates. We also develop methods for decomposing birthweight effects into family and individual-level components. These exercises will allow us to more precisely interpret the results of our empirical analyses to follow as well as those in the current literature. We then expand upon the results in Boardman, et al. (2002), who examined only test scores, to include other health and behavioral outcomes available in the NLSY Child Sample. Our models will explore patterns of results using a variety of specifications, including OLS, mother fixed-effects, mother-sibling fixed effects, and IV strategies. The research pays careful attention to the source of variation in birthweight and outcomes across sibling pairs and considers how family income and other common environmental influences affect the relationship between birthweight and later outcomes. In addition, we experiment with a variety of measures of low birthweight including categorical and continuous measures and indices combining birthweight and prematurity. |
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Bibliography Citation
Kilburn, M. Rebecca and David S. Loughran. "Parental Investment and Later Outcomes Among Low Birthweight Children." Presented: Minneapolis, MN, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2003. |
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Lillard, Lee A. Kilburn, M. Rebecca |
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Simultaneity of Ability and Education Presented: Chicago, IL, Population Association of America Meetings, April 1998 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Education; Education, Secondary; Family Background and Culture; Simultaneity Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper explores the simultaneity of education and ability using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We estimate joint models of educational progression and scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) allowing for simultaneity in two ways. First, we allow for direct feedback: the dependent variables in the AFQT and schooling equations appear as explanatory variables in the other equation. The second way is through unmeasured family background factors which are allowed to influence both AFQT and schooling progression. We find that more years of schooling significantly raise measured AFQT and that greater ability as measured by AFQT significantly increases the propensity to continue in school at every level. Failure to account for the timing of AFQT measurement and correlation due to common unmeasured family background results in a very substantial bias toward overstatement of the effect of AFQT on secondary school progression. |
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Bibliography Citation
Lillard, Lee A. and M. Rebecca Kilburn. "Simultaneity of Ability and Education." Presented: Chicago, IL, Population Association of America Meetings, April 1998. |
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Loughran, David S. Datar, Ashlesha Kilburn, M. Rebecca |
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Interaction of Birth Weight, Gestation, and Parental Investment in the Production of Cognitive Development Presented: Boston, MA, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2004 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Birthweight; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); School Entry/Readiness; Siblings Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Low birthweight is correlated with a variety of poor health and cognitive outcomes at both younger and older ages. In this paper, we estimate models of children's achievement scores as a function of birth weight using data from the NLSY Child sample. Data on siblings permit us to control for family-level heterogeneity and test how the effect of birth weight on achievement scores varies with age and grade attainment. We also pay careful attention to how parameters estimates vary across different measures of birthweight and gestational age. Additionally, we investigate whether parental investment in the form of delayed kindergarten entrance compensates for the negative effect of low birthweight on subsequent achievement scores. |
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Bibliography Citation
Loughran, David S., Ashlesha Datar and M. Rebecca Kilburn. "Interaction of Birth Weight, Gestation, and Parental Investment in the Production of Cognitive Development." Presented: Boston, MA, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2004. |
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Loughran, David S. Datar, Ashlesha Kilburn, M. Rebecca |
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Interactive Effect of Birth Weight and Common Parental Investment on Child Test Scores Working PaperWR-404, RAND Labor and Population Working Paper Series, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, July 2006 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: RAND Keyword(s): Birthweight; Family Models; Family Size; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); School Entry/Readiness; School Progress; Siblings; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Variables, Instrumental The theoretical and empirical literature on intrahousehold resource allocation focuses on whether child-specific parental investments reinforce or compensate for a child's initial endowments. However, many parental investments, like housing and neighborhood quality and family structure, are shared wholly or in part among all children in a household. The empirical results of this paper imply that these common parental investments are more beneficial to relatively poorly endowed siblings, where birth weight proxies for endowments. This is especially true in relatively high-SES families. Since we cannot comprehensively account for common parental investments with specific variables available in nationally representative data sets, like the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child file (NLSY-C), nor can we directly measure endowments, we employ an indirect approach in this paper to assess whether common parental investment reinforces or compensates for endowments. This approach compares estimates of the impact of birth weight, which we treat as an observed correlate of endowments, on child test scores derived from empirical specifications that employ between-family and within-family variation in our data. |
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Bibliography Citation
Loughran, David S., Ashlesha Datar and M. Rebecca Kilburn. "Interactive Effect of Birth Weight and Common Parental Investment on Child Test Scores." Working PaperWR-404, RAND Labor and Population Working Paper Series, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, July 2006. |
| 9. |
Loughran, David S. Datar, Ashlesha Kilburn, M. Rebecca |
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Interactive Effect of Birth Weight and Parental Investment on Child Test Scores Working Paper No. WR-168, RAND, June 2004. Also: http://www.rand.org/publications/WR/WR168/WR168.pdf Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: RAND Keyword(s): Birthweight; Family Models; Family Size; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); School Progress This paper explores how observed and unobserved parental investments compensate for low birth weight. Controlling for family fixed effects, which encompass unobserved parental investment, we find birth weight positively correlates with math and reading scores and these estimates are considerably larger in magnitude than estimates derived from models that do not control for family fixed effects. Additionally, we examine how three specific parental investments -- kindergarten entrance age, maternal labor supply, and family size -- interact with birth weight in models of child test scores. Of these investments, only smaller family size conveys particular advantage to low birth weight children. |
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Bibliography Citation
Loughran, David S., Ashlesha Datar and M. Rebecca Kilburn. "Interactive Effect of Birth Weight and Parental Investment on Child Test Scores." Working Paper No. WR-168, RAND, June 2004. |
| 10. |
Loughran, David S. Datar, Ashlesha Kilburn, M. Rebecca |
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The Response of Household Parental Investment to Child Endowments RAND Working Paper Series No. WR-404-1, RAND, April 2008. Also: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=999821 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: RAND Keyword(s): Birthweight; Family Models; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Motor and Social Development (MSD); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) The theoretical and empirical literature on parental investment focuses on whether child-specific parental investments reinforce or compensate for a child's initial endowments. However, many parental investments, such as neighborhood quality and family size and structure, are shared wholly or in part among all children in a household. The empirical results of this paper imply that such household parental investments compensate for low endowments, as proxied by low birth weight. |
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Bibliography Citation
Loughran, David S., Ashlesha Datar and M. Rebecca Kilburn. "The Response of Household Parental Investment to Child Endowments." RAND Working Paper Series No. WR-404-1, RAND, April 2008. |