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

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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.