Household Decision Making about Children's Schooling in Latin America

Mary Arends-Kuenning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Suzanne Duryea, Inter-American Development Bank

In Latin America, girls often obtain more education than boys. For example, in Brazil in 1995, 18-year-old females had completed 6.5 years of schooling compared to 5.6 years for 18-year-old males. We examine two hypotheses to explain the increasing gender gap. First, opportunity costs of schooling are higher for boys than for girls. Second, the rise of single-parent households has had a negative impact on boys' schooling. This paper uses World Bank Living Standards Measurement Survey data from Brazil, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru to examine the determinants of children's schooling and work. A unique feature of the data is the availability of mother and father codes. Children can be matched accurately with their parents. Data are available at two points in time in Nicaragua and Peru, allowing for an analysis of how the impacts of household structure and labor market opportunities on children's work and schooling have changed over time.