Parents of Only Daughters and First-Born Sons Are More Generous Donors

Households with more than one child are more likely to give, and donate a bigger share of their income, if the eldest is a son, a new study finds. But parents with only one child are more likely to give, and to donate generously, if that child is a daughter.

The report from the Women's Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy is based on giving data from more than 13,000 people, and is the first to study the effects child gender and birth order have on parents' charitable giving, researchers say.