Educational Fairness: How Gender, Birth Order, and Parents' Education Matter in Benin

In Benin, a study looked at how gender, birth order, and natural skills affect how much education kids in the same family get. They used two methods: a simple approach and a detailed model of how families divide their resources for education. The researchers found that in families where parents didn't go to school, there were big differences in education between kids of different genders and birth orders. About 70% of these differences were due to gender and birth order. But in families where parents went to college, these differences were much smaller, only 24% due to gender and 9% due to birth order. These families also had less educational inequality overall. The study also tested what would happen if certain policies were put in place. They found that education vouchers, making education compulsory, and reducing educational costs for parents who didn't go to school all helped to reduce the effects of gender and birth order on inequality. Making education compulsory helped reduce overall inequality, and reducing costs for non-educated parents eliminated the effects of gender and birth order completely. This study shows that many things can cause kids in the same family to get different amounts of education. It also suggests some ways to make education fairer.