Fathering Daughters and Personality

Arbeitspapier

The big five personality traits develop over a person's lifetime. There is some suggestive evidence that major life events - such as getting married, being fired from a job, and having children - affect personality. However, these associations cannot be interpreted as causal. This is the first paper that studies the causal effect of a life event - the gender of the first-born child - on the big five personality trait scores of fathers. Using yearly longitudinal data (2008 - 2020) I find that having a first-born daughter instead of son increases fathers' extraversion. The gender of the first child also affects labor market outcomes for fathers. Fathers of first-born daughters earn 127 euro more per month (i.e. 6.9% of the average monthly wage). This effect is not driven by changes in the number of hours worked or job switches.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 15012

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
• Subject: family structure ; fertility ; life events ; human capital ; big five personality traits ; labor market outcomes

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): van Lent, Max
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/250673
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET