Understanding Intra-Household Educational Inequalities: Gender, Birth Order, and Ability Dynamics in Benin's Households

This paper investigates the nuanced interplay of gender, birth order, and innate ability in shaping educational disparities among children within households, employing both a reduced-form analysis and a structural model of household resource allocation. By decomposing overall disparities, I identify the contributions of gender, birth order, and innate ability differences. In the context of Benin, for households with non-educated heads and mixed-gender children, total inequality comprises 50% gender disparity, 20% birth order effect, and 30% ability gap. Conversely, in households with only sons or only daughters and non-educated heads, total inequality is predominantly driven by ability disparities 70% for daughters and 83% for sons, with lesser contributions from birth order effects. Furthermore, my analysis reveals that in households with non-educated heads, firstborn daughters surpass their younger brothers in educational attainment on the intensive margin if their innate ability exceeds their brothers' by at least 13%, a figure reduced to 8% in households with college-educated parents. Additionally, the study unveils parental preferences favoring sons' education over daughters' among non-educated parents, with a perceived 22% higher average benefit. Targeted policies aimed at reducing composite education costs prove effective in mitigating gender and birth order gaps, albeit with a modest 5% reduction in total inequality. Overall, this research underscores the complex dynamics influencing intra-household educational inequalities and suggests policy avenues to address them.