This paper examines the determinants of assets at marriage in rural Ethiopia. We find ample evidence of assortative matching at marriage. Assets brought to marriage are distributed in a highly unequal manner. Sorting operates at a variety of levels - wealth, schooling, and work experience - that cannot be summarised into a single additive index. For first unions, assets brought to marriage are positively associated with parents' wealth, indicating that a bequest motive affects assets at marriage. Unlike most brides, grooms appear to accumulate individual assets over time and over marriages. Parents act strategically in the sense that they bequeath more assets at marriage if this results in a better prospective spouse. The marriage market is a major conduit for rural and gender inequality.
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Paper provided by Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford in its series Working Papers Series with number
2000-28.
Length: 12 pages Date of creation: 2000 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:fth:oxesaf:2000-28
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Find related papers by JEL classification: O55 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
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Heidrun C. Hoppe & Benny Moldovanu & Aner Sela, 2005.
"The Theory of Assortative Matching Based on Costly Signals,"
Discussion Papers
85, SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
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