IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v41y2019i20.html

How marriages based on bride capture differ: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan

Author

Listed:
  • Susan Steiner

    (Center for Evaluation and Development)

  • Charles M. Becker

    (Duke University)

Abstract

Background: A significant proportion of women in the Kyrgyz Republic marry via ala kachuu, generally translated as bride capture or kidnapping. Many regard this practice as harmless elopement or a tradition; others perceive it as a form of forced marriage. Objective: This paper contributes to the understanding of ala kachuu by exploring the extent to which couples in these marriages differ from those in arranged or love marriages. Methods: We use the 2013 wave of the Life in Kyrgyzstan survey to compute profile similarity indices for the personality of couples. We then regress marriage type on the profile similarity index, controlling for sociodemographic variables. Results: Couples in marriages resulting from bride capture are far less assortatively matched on personality traits than other couples, especially those who have only recently married. Conclusions: This greater dissimilarity is consistent with ala kachuu being forced marriage rather than merely staged or ritualized elopement. Contribution: This paper provides a novel source of evidence on the possible nonconsensual nature of bride capture in Kyrgyzstan, adding further weight to those arguing that it is forced.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Steiner & Charles M. Becker, 2019. "How marriages based on bride capture differ: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(20), pages 579-592.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:41:y:2019:i:20
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2019.41.20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol41/20/41-20.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2019.41.20?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charles M. Becker & Bakhrom Mirkasimov & Susan Steiner, 2017. "Forced Marriage and Birth Outcomes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(4), pages 1401-1423, August.
    2. Lesia Nedoluzhko & Victor Agadjanian, 2015. "Between Tradition and Modernity: Marriage Dynamics in Kyrgyzstan," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 861-882, June.
    3. Brück, Tilman & Esenaliev, Damir & Kroeger, Antje & Kudebayeva, Alma & Mirkasimov, Bakhrom & Steiner, Susan, 2014. "Household survey data for research on well-being and behavior in Central Asia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 819-835.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Siwan Anderson & Chris Bidner, 2021. "An Institutional Perspective on the Economics of the Family," Discussion Papers dp21-14, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    2. 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.
    3. Porreca, Zachary, 2024. "Bride Kidnapping and Informal Governance Institutions," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1391, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Ekaterina Chicherina, 2022. "Construction of Girls’ Educational Projects in Kyrgyzstan from the Intergenerational Perspective," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(4), pages 1233-1254, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Landmann, Andreas & Seitz, Helke & Steiner, Susan, 2017. "Patrilocal Residence and Female Labour Supply," IZA Discussion Papers 10890, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. 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.
    3. Andreas Landmann & Helke Seitz & Susan Steiner, 2018. "Patrilocal Residence and Female Labor Supply: Evidence From Kyrgyzstan," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2181-2203, December.
    4. Arabsheibani, G. Reza & Kudebayeva, Alma & Mussurov, Altay, 2021. "A note on bride kidnapping and labour supply behaviour of Kyrgyz women," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 45(4).
    5. Freudenreich, Hanna & Aladysheva, Anastasia & Brück, Tilman, 2022. "Weather shocks across seasons and child health: Evidence from a panel study in the Kyrgyz Republic," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    6. Charles M. Becker & Bakhrom Mirkasimov & Susan Steiner, 2017. "Forced Marriage and Birth Outcomes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(4), pages 1401-1423, August.
    7. Franziska Gassmann & Bruno Martorano & Jennifer Waidler, 2022. "How Social Assistance Affects Subjective Wellbeing: Lessons from Kyrgyzstan," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(4), pages 827-847, April.
    8. Chakraborty, Tanika & Pandey, Manish, 2021. "Temporary International Migration, Shocks and Informal Insurance: Analysis using panel data," GLO Discussion Paper Series 759, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Egamberdiev, Bekhzod, 2024. "Social capital effects on resilience to food insecurity: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 435-450.
    10. Brück, Tilman & Esenaliev, Damir, 2013. "Post-Socialist Transition and the Intergenerational Transmission of Education in Kyrgyzstan," IZA Discussion Papers 7318, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. Hartmut Lehmann & Alexander Muravyev & Klaus Zimmermann, 2012. "The Ukrainian longitudinal monitoring survey: towards a better understanding of labor markets in transition," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Lin, Chung-Liang, 2021. "Postpartum medical utilization: The role of prenatal economic activity and living costs," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    13. Egamberdiev, Bekhzod & Bobojonov, Ihtiyor & Kuhn, Lena & Glauben, Thomas, 2023. "Household resilience capacity and food security: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 15(4), pages 967-988.
    14. Pal, Sumantra, 2018. "Spousal Violence and Social Norms in India's North East," EconStor Preprints 179422, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    15. Chakraborty, Tanika & Mirkasimov, Bakhrom & Steiner, Susan, 2015. "Transfer behavior in migrant sending communities," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 690-705.
    16. Berliant, Marcus & Thakur, Sounak, 2019. "Commitment and matching in the marriage market," MPRA Paper 96001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Tilman Brück & Patricia Justino & Charles Patrick MartinShields, 2017. "Conflict and development: Recent research advances and future agendas," WIDER Working Paper Series 178, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Mirkasimov, Bakhrom & Ahunov, Muzaffar, 2017. "Labor markets and informality: the case of Central Asia," MPRA Paper 78751, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Nurgul Tilenbaeva, 2025. "Trade Integration and Well-Being: Evidence from Kyrgyz Farmers," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 67(2), pages 263-288, June.
    20. Aldashev, Alisher & Aldashev, Gani, 2025. "Festivity spending, rat race, and underdevelopment: A stylized model," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 49(3).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:41:y:2019:i:20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.