This paper aims at studying the relationship between schooling and family background characteristics. The econometric analysis uses an original survey conducted in 2003 in Senegal that, uniquely, provides instruments permitting to deal with the endogeneity of background variables. The estimated...

We explore how human capital investment of a child is affected by the number and the gender of his/her siblings. We test for two alternative explanations : competition for scarce resources versus direct interactions between siblings. We provide an empirical application using Brazilian data.