In this paper we analyse the sibling size and birth-order effect on educational achievement in
Switzerland on the basis of PISA data. We find an overall modest size and birth-order effect.
The sibling size effect, however, is a product of a substantial and significant negative size
effect for families with lower socio-economic status and foreign origin and a positive sibling
size effect in small, native families with a high socio-economic status compared to singlechild
families with the same background. Thus, subgroups of the population seem to be
confronted with binding budget constraints, although education is free. The hypothesis that
parents of larger families spend on average less time with their children is also tested and
shows the expected negative effect of the sibling size. We present an extended version of the
sibling size model that can account for these effects and discuss the consequences these
results might have for social and educational policy.
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