Abstract
This paper investigates how gender and sibling composition affect the educational and health outcomes of secondborn children in India, a country where cultural and economic son preference persists. Using nationally representative data from three rounds of the Indian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), I assess how combinations of sibling sex (girl-girl, girl-boy, boy-girl, boy-boy) influence resource allocation within households. Relying on the assumption of random sex at first birth and controlling for household, parental, and child characteristics, I estimate an OLS regression framework with state fixed effects. The results reveal that secondborn girls with older sisters experience significantly worse educational outcomes, while girls with older brothers benefit slightly, supporting the theory of son preference in India. Among health outcomes, boys with older sisters show higher weight-for-height scores than those with older brothers, suggesting possible within-gender competition among male siblings. These findings highlight how different sibling combinations offers better or worse outcomes for the secondborn child, specifically relating to their education and health.