Sibling rivalry and the gender gap: Evidence from child health outcomes inGhana

When capital and labor markets are imperfect, choice sets narrow, and paren ts must choose how to ration available funds and time between their childre n. One consequence is that children become rivals for household resources. In economies with pro-male bias, such rivalries can yield gains to having r elatively more sisters than brothers. Using a rich household survey from Gh ana, we find that on average if children had all sisters (and no brothers) they would do roughly 25-40% better on measured health indicators than if t hey had all brothers (and no sisters). The effects are as large as typical quantity-quality trade-offs, and they do not differ significantly by gender .