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Bride Price and Fertility Decisions: Evidence from Rural Senegal

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  • Mbaye, Linguère Mously

    (African Development Bank)

  • Wagner, Natascha

    (ISS)

Abstract

This paper is the first to provide evidence about the relationship between bride price payments and fertility decisions in the African context. Remarkably, the results show that bride price payments reduce fertility pressure, with a woman reducing her number of children by 0.5 at the mean bride price. The results are robust to different tests that we conduct to address the potential endogeneity between bride price payments and fertility decisions. As possible transmission channels, we find that poor women and men with low levels of education are the most negatively affected by the tradition of bride price payments. Furthermore, a lower bride price payment increases fertility pressure in polygamous households and for arranged marriages, while the bride price payment has no effect on the couple's decisions concerning fertility in monogamous households and for love marriages. Consequently, given that bride price payments have less power over (economically) independent women, empowerment will give leeway to girls in traditional societies, even if the bride price system is not overturned.

Suggested Citation

  • Mbaye, Linguère Mously & Wagner, Natascha, 2013. "Bride Price and Fertility Decisions: Evidence from Rural Senegal," IZA Discussion Papers 7770, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7770
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    Cited by:

    1. Sara Lowes & Nathan Nunn, 2017. "Bride price and the wellbeing of women," WIDER Working Paper Series 131, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Hotte, Rozenn & Lambert, Sylvie, 2023. "Marriage payments and wives’ welfare: All you need is love," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    3. Lucia Corno & Nicole Hildebrandt & Alessandra Voena, 2020. "Age of Marriage, Weather Shocks, and the Direction of Marriage Payments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(3), pages 879-915, May.
    4. Corno, Lucia & Voena, Alessandra, 2023. "Child marriage as informal insurance: Empirical evidence and policy simulations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    5. Kumar, Rahul & Maity, Bipasha, 2022. "Cultural norms and women’s health: Implications of the practice of menstrual restrictions in Nepal," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    6. Bazarkulova, Dana & Compton, Janice, 2021. "Marriage traditions and investment in education: The case of bride kidnapping," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 147-163.
    7. Panu Poutvaara & Maximilian Schwefer, 2018. "Husbands’ and wives’ diverging perceptions on who decides," ifo Working Paper Series 279, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    8. Tapsoba, Augustin, 2021. "Polygyny and the Economic Determinants of Family Formation Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa," TSE Working Papers 21-1240, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    9. Lucia Corno & Nicole Hildebrandt & Alessandra Voena, 2016. "Weather Shocks, Age of Marriage and the Direction of Marriage Payments," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def040, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    10. Linguère Mously Mbaye, 2021. "Remittances and rural credit markets: Evidence from Senegal," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 183-199, February.
    11. Sara Lowes & Nathan Nunn, 2017. "Bride price and the well-being of women," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-131, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    empowerment; bride price; marriage payments; fertility; Senegal;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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