Sibling Rivalry in Africa

Morduch, J.
American Economic Review (AEA, Papers and Proceedings) 90 (2), May 2000, 405 - 409.

This article uses data on young teenagers to investigate how sibling composition affects schooling outcomes in South Africa and Tanzania. The results, while not estimated very precisely, establish additional evidence of positive associations between school completion and the number of sisters a child has (controlling for the total number of siblings), but the evidence from South Africa shows that they are not general findings. The estimates are conditional on the given family structure, and of course, family structure may not be fully exogenous to schooling choices.

Wagner Faculty