Gender Differences in Schooling Attainment: The Role of Sibling Characteristics and Birth Order Effects

This paper uses a using a nationally representative dataset to show that gender, birth order and sibling characteristics have significant effects on the schooling attainment of Egyptian children. Our analysis finds that relative to a male child, female and rural children are not only less likely to have the right schooling for age, but birth order and sibling characteristics also affect these two groups more adversely. Our empirical results show that schooling outcomes are better for earlier born (lower birth order) children, particularly for females and rural children. For example, a female child who is third in the birth order is approximately 40% less likely to have attained the right schooling for age, worsening with each increase in birth order. However, male and urban children are unaffected by birth order and sibling characteristics, the only exception being male children born sixth or higher in the birth order. Furthermore, we see that an increase in sibship size is associated with lower schooling attainment for the last born school-age child across all our samples. Finally, we see that with the exception of rural females, the sibling size effect is somewhat mitigated for the oldest school-age child having younger sisters rather than brothers