Sibling effects on attitudes towards competition

Recent research in economics has explored how competition preferences could be a partial explanation for differences in labor outcomes between men and women. This paper investigates how sibling gender compositions can give insights about competition preferences of young students, which may shape their occupational and economic preferences in the future. To understand the mechanisms behind students' competition preferences, we look at whether younger male siblings affect other predictors of competitiveness, such as risk attitude and self-confidence. For eldest children with a single younger sibling, the gender of the younger sibling is random. Utilizing the random gender assignment, we examine the effect of this on competitive behavior of the eldest child. Our analysis reveals that for eldest girls, having a younger brother increases competitiveness, while having a younger sisters decrease competitiveness. No significant impact is not observed for eldest boy. Additionally, for youngest girls, older brothers increase competition preferences, whereas older sisters have no noticeable impact on preferences for either gender. Self-confidence, rather than risk attitudes, appears to play a role in these impacts.