Preliminary Comments welcome Investments in Sons and Daughters: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey

We test for differences in parental investment in sons and daughters by estimating the effect of child gender on household expenditures. We focus on differences in expenditures on family public goods such as housing and durable goods. Using Consumer Expenditure Survey data from 1995 to 1998, we find that married-couple families with one son spend significantly more on several categories of household public good than do families with one daughter. In particular, boys’ families spend nearly $1200 per year more on housing than do girls’ families. Families with boys also spend significantly more on food, medical care, entertainment and recreation, food away from home, personal care services, drugs, health insurance, auto insurance, airline fares, recreation services, and charity and political contributions. These results are interpreted in terms of an economic model of the family in which marital surplus, and therefore incentives to invest in the family, depends on child gender. * Prepared for the Joint Center for Poverty Research 2002 September Research Institute, “Family Investments in Children’s Potential: Resources and Behaviors that Promote Children’s Success,” Chicago, IL, September 19-20, 2002. We are grateful to Ekaterina Stepanova and Anoshua Chaudhuri for excellent research assistance, and NIH/NICHD for research support (R01 HD42785-01).