We conduct the first population-level analysis of academic achievement of children in same-sex and different-sex families. We use linked administrative data from the Netherlands, which alleviate the common issues with small same-sex samples and non-random sampling, and which provide us with multiple proxies of academic achievement, including standardised test scores, high school track choice, high school grade retention and college enrolment. We show that the children raised by same-sex parents perform better than children raised by heterosexual parents across all the available outcomes. The achievement gap becomes narrower when we control for socio-economic characteristics of the family and the matrix of family transitions, however even then it remains statistically significant at the conventional significance levels.
This workshop will discuss this research and how to develop the research.
Jan Kabátek is a LCC Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. His research draws primarily on administrative data sources and covers the topics of family, education and employment.