We identify birth wantedness as a source of better child outcomes. In Vietnam, the year of birth is widely believed to …-specific, this difference will be shown to be driven by birth planning. Children born in auspicious years are more likely to have …

We construct and estimate a model of child development in which both the parents and children make investments in the … heterogeneity in preferences both for parents and children, and in monitoring costs. Like their parents, children are forward … looking, but we allow children and parents to have different preferences and for children to have age-varying discount rates …