The Economics of Abduction Marriage: Evidence from Ethiopia

Jorge Garcia-Hombrados (jorge.garcia.hombrados@gmail.com) and Lindsey Novak
Additional contact information
Jorge Garcia-Hombrados: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Jorge Garcia Hombrados

No 17242, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: A sizable share of marriages in several Asian and African countries are initiated by the man abducting the woman he wishes to wed. In this paper, we use quantitative and qualitative methods to characterize the practice of abduction marriage in Ethiopia. We first present the results from in-depth qualitative surveys with community leaders and abducted women in the Gambella region of Ethiopia to gain a deeper understanding of how the practice functions in these communities. These interviews suggest that abduction is typically used to overcome the refusal of the woman's family. Second, we use Demographic and Health Survey along with ethnographic data to characterize women and ethnic groups affected by this practice in Ethiopia. Finally, we empirically examine the central hypothesis about the persistence of this practice and find evidence consistent with the hypothesis that men often use abduction to improve bargaining power in marriage negotiations and reduce the size of the bride price payment. Specifically, we demonstrate that droughts - a proxy for income shocks in this setting - increase the probability of abduction marriage only for women from ethnic groups that traditionally exchange a bride price.

Keywords: abduction marriage; marriage markets; social norms; bride price (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 D7 I3 J1 O1 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2024-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-evo and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp17242.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17242

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
library@iza.org

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte (hinte@iza.org).