Educational gender gap in sub-Saharan Africa: does the estimation method matter? A comparison using a sample of opposite sex twins

A robust assessment of the gender educational gap addressing all channels behind gender discrimination is necessary. Using data for over 30 sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries and household and twin fixed-effects approaches, I estimate this inequality across the lifecourse, controlling for variables that are the same within households or twins, yielding a better understanding of the association of gender with education outcomes. Estimates show that gender inequality is still a significant barrier in SSA, but its extent is somewhat over-estimated by monitoring platforms of SGD4. The analysis indicates that more emphasis should be placed on investigating unobserved factors behind gender discrimination.