Siblings, child labor, and schooling in Nicaragua and Guatemala

This paper explores empirically within-household gender and sibling differences in child labor, domestic work, and schooling of Guatemalan and Nicaraguan children. The main results show that older boys spend more time engaged in market and domestic work, whereas older girls spend more time in domestic work than their younger siblings. These results are independent of whether the younger sibling is a boy or a girl, which suggests that there is no substitution within the household of younger for older siblings in market and domestic work. This paper’s findings show the relevance of domestic work and gender differentials in children’s allocation of time in developing countries.