Facts and figures about UK taxes, benefits and public spending.
Income distribution, poverty and inequality.
Analysing government fiscal forecasts and tax and spending.
Analysis of the fiscal choices an independent Scotland would face.
Case studies that give a flavour of the areas where IFS research has an impact on society.
Reforming the tax system for the 21st century.
A peer-reviewed quarterly journal publishing articles by academics and practitioners.
|
Funded by:
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Date started: 01 June 2008
In this ongoing work we test whether family size has a causal effect on children's education in rural Mexico. We use son preference as a source of random variation in the propensity to have more children, and estimate the causal effects using an instrumental variable methodology, using son preferences and twins as instruments. We find no evidence of family size having an adverse effect on education, once we account for the endogeneity of family size. We address a number of concerns about the validity of the instrument, including economies of scale and son preferences having a direct effect on outcomes. We also allow for the possibility that the instrument is imperfect and provide bounds on the effects. We show that the bounds are never lower than the OLS estimates.
All available publications
Search |

