Cheaper by the Dozen: Family Size Effects on Children’s Educational Attainment in Egypt

Abstract

Education is a crucial determinant of child quality. Economic theory and empirical research suggest a trade-off between the quantity and quality of children. Larger families facing tighter constraints are likely to distribute resources among children unevenly, which can adversely affect educational investment in some children within the same family. This paper investigates the effects of the number and order of siblings on children's educational attainment in Egypt; a developing country that has been overlooked in the literature. For this purpose, we use the Egyptian labor market panel survey between 2006 and 2012. We control for parental family income, age at birth, and other family-level attributes. We find that a child with more siblings is likely to complete elementary school, but less likely to have a high school degree. Our findings are robust to several specification checks. We build on these findings to inform policy making in the areas of education and family planning.