The Role of Gender, Birth Order, and Ability in Intra-household Educational Inequality: Evidence from Benin

This paper explores how gender, birth order, and innate ability affect educational disparities among children within households. Using both a reduced-form approach and a structural model of household educational resource allocation, it identifies the contributions of gender and birth order to intra-household educational inequality. In Benin, significant disparities are found in households with non-educated heads and mixed-gender children, with 70% of the inequality attributed to gender and birth order. In contrast, households led by college-educated heads show 24% gender effects and 9% birth order effects. Additionally, college-educated parents exhibit less overall educational inequality among their children. Policy counterfactuals assess the impact of (1) education vouchers, (2) compulsory education, and (3) targeted educational cost reduction for non-educated parents. All three policies reduced the effects of gender and birth order on inequality. Compulsory education reduced overall average inequality, while targeted educational cost reduction completely eliminated gender and birth order effects. This research underscores the complex factors driving intra-household educational inequalities and suggests effective policy measures.