A second question people (typically not economists) often ask is whether there is some downside to having an only child—will they be socially awkward? Again, this is hard to study, given the differences across families. To the extent that we have evidence, this concern seems unfounded. One review article, which summarizes 140 studies on this broad question, found some evidence of more “academic motivation” among only children, but no differences in personality traits like extroversion.4 Even this fact about academic motivation may be more about birth order—firstborn children score higher on
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