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Abstract
Qualitative and quantitative evidence reveals pervasive gender discrimination in many
social and economic aspects in least developing countries, including Ethiopia.
Investment in child schooling is an important dimension of this discrimination, which
has a lasting consequence on both the child and the country’s economic development
as a whole. The main objective of this study is to uncover if there is any intrahousehold
gender-bias in the decision to enrollment and allocation of resources to
child education. Using a panel data set from Ethiopian Rural Household Survey
(ERHS), spanning from 1994-2004, we applied a panel hurdle models consisting of
random effects probit for the initial decision in enrollment and conditional linear
autoregressive model for the proportion spent. We found statistically significant
gender-bias during the initial decision to enrollment against girls, especially those
corresponding to secondary school cycle. Since the bias occurs inside the household,
public investments should not only focus on facilitating access to school but also work
towards altering the demand side as parents have differential preference towards
siblings’ education. Policies that increase returns to girl’s education, increasing
intrahousehold productivity, legislations that prohibit early marriage, etc. could
mitigate the observed level of intra-household gender-bias against girls aged 15-19 years.