Data and Code for: Parental Investments in Early Childhood and the Gender Gap in Math and Literacy

Parental investments at early ages can shape children’s future educational specializations. Using a longitudinal study, we find that parents invest more in daughters than sons at ages 3-5. Moreover, parents’ beliefs about their children’s reading and math abilities are higher for girls than boys. We examine how these behaviors and beliefs predict children’s academic performance 4-6 years later. We find that early parental investment and beliefs lead to persistently higher English scores for girls than boys in grades 3-5. However, there is no gender gap in math scores. The results suggest that parental beliefs and behaviors at ages 3-5 contribute to girls’ advantage in English but have little impact on math. In our data, parents' investments appear to be domain-specific, giving girls an advantage in reading that does not transfer to math. Since math skills are foundational for economics and STEM, these investments may be more effective in promoting skills for the arts over economics and STEM. If parents invest more in girls and early skill development shapes students’ later educational decisions, the greater effectiveness of parental investment in reading than math may lead women to favor the arts over economics or STEM fields later on.