The effect of family size on female educational attainment in Taiwan during a critical period of its development is examined. A sample group of women in 1973 (ages 20-39) with varying socioeconomic backgrounds and family structures is considered. Although the father's occupational status and education are positively related to the daughter's educational level, it would appear that structural aspects of the family and number of siblings are not related. The results of this study thus reveal that family size was not related to female educational attainment with the exception of certain sectors of Taiwanese society. An explanation of these findings suggests that in the early stages of development, children's education is not as important as it later becomes when greater value is attributed to schooling as a vehicle for social mobility. At that later level of societal development, parents consider making resource allocation decisions between expenditures on education and other desired goods (e.g. children) and family size begins to have a negative affect on individual educational attainment.
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Hermalin et al. (1982) studied this question.