Family Disadvantage and the Gender Gap in Behavioral and Educational Outcomes
利用佛罗里达州1992-2002年出生儿童的匹配数据，研究发现家庭劣势对男孩的纪律问题、学业成绩和高中毕业率的不利影响大于女孩，且这种差异主要源于后天环境而非新生儿健康。
Boys born to disadvantaged families have higher rates of disciplinary problems, lower achievement scores, and fewer high school completions than girls from comparable backgrounds. Using birth certificates matched to schooling records for Florida children born 1992–2002, we find that family disadvantage disproportionately impedes the pre-market development of boys. The differential effect of family disadvantage on boys is robust to specifications within schools and neighborhoods as well as across siblings within families. Evidence supports that this is the effect of the postnatal environment; family disadvantage is unrelated to the gender gap in neonatal health. We conclude that the gender gap among black children is larger than among white children in substantial part because black children are raised in more disadvantaged families.