1. Conley’s Pecking Order: Inequality Starts at Home In explaining economic inequality in America, sibling differences represent about ¾ of all differences between individuals. Put another way, only one-quarter of all income inequality is between families. The remaining 75 % is within families.

2. Conley’s Pecking Order: The Central Question Why is there a pecking order among American families and how does it work? What explains intra-familial differences in income and attainment?

3. Conley’s Pecking Order: Possible Explanations  Genetics  [Gender-specific] birth order  Parenting

4. The Pecking Order: Conley’s Explanation Family size is what matters because parental time, attention, and money are fixed pies and each claim on a slice means less for someone else. Birth order matters, but not by shaping personalities which in turn shape socio- economic outcomes; rather it mediates family trauma.

5. The Pecking Order: Contribution Challenges the perceived split between individual, personality-based explanations of sibling differences and sociological ones. Pecking order or status hierarchy emerges from the interaction between individual- level and structural factors.

6. The Pecking Order: Implications What do sibling disparities indicate? According to Conley, class identity is ever changing and not necessarily shared between siblings. Family is not a haven in a heartless capitalist world or a shelter from its winds, but a part of them.

7. Conley’s Pecking Order: The Central Question Why is there a pecking order among American families and how does it work? What explains intra-familial differences in income and attainment?

8. The Pecking Order: Data U.S. Census Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) General Social Survey (GSS) NYU In-depth Interviews