Title: Consequences of an Early Grave: Losing a Sibling During Childhood
Abstract: "The death of a child is a devastating and life-altering event for the entire family, extending beyond the initial grief and shaping the short and long-term life trajectories of the surviving siblings and parents. Although a growing literature documents its negative impact on parental outcomes, very little is known about its causal impact on the human capital accumulation of surviving siblings. This paper examines the effect of losing a sibling during childhood on educational outcomes, using detailed register data from the entire population of Finland. I exploit the timing of an unexpected sibling loss relative to the time of 9th-grade GPA measurement. I find that losing a sibling 2 years before the 9th grade has a negative impact of 19% of a standard deviation on the 9th-grade GPA. The effect is more pronounced and prevalent across different ages at the time of sibling loss for children with a lower socioeconomic background. Further, I find a 12-14 percentage points decrease in the probability of general track choice in the upper-secondary school following a sibling loss. Exploring potential mechanisms, I find notable negative mental health effects on both surviving children and their parents, along with adverse effects on the labor market outcomes for mothers. These findings highlight the large social and economic consequences of such losses, emphasizing the need for targeted policies to support bereaved family members."