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This paper examines the role of the extended family on investments in children, usingdata from a retrospective survey of three generations in the rural Philippines. Econometricresults show that interactions between grandparent characteristics and child gendersignificantly affect the distribution of proposed land bequests between sons and daughters.However, grandparents significantly affect gender-specific investments in children'seducation only in resource-constrained families. Family-specific effects are more importantin determining the pattern of investment in children within the nuclear family, whileindividual heterogeneity rather than family-specific unobservables dominates the extendedfamily results. Interactions between parent characteristics and child gender are importantdeterminants of both land transfers to, and educational investments in, children. Sons areclearly favored in terms of land inheritance, although daughters of better educated fathers,and with better educated grandfathers, may also have an advantage. The secular expansionof education has contributed much to the increased educational attainment of women. Bettereducated fathers favor daughters in terms of education, while mothers with more land favorsons. These patterns are consistent with both equity and efficiency objectives, investmentin children under resource constraints, and parents' risk-diversification strategies.
