Is the Quantity-Quality Trade-off a Trade-off for All, None, or Some?∗

Although the theoretical trade-off between the quantity and quality of children is well-established, empirical evidence supporting such a causal relationship – particularly on child health – is lim-ited. We use two measures of child health to asses the quantity-quality trade-off across the entire distribution. Using data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey and controlling for the potential endogeneity of child quantity, we find modest statistically meaningful evidence of a causal trade-off