Education and polygamy: Evidence from Cameroon

Pierre André and Yannick Dupraz

Journal of Development Economics, 2023, vol. 162, issue C

Abstract: Has secular education contributed to the decline of polygamy in Africa? To answer this question, we study a wave of public school construction in late-colonial Cameroon. Our difference-in-differences and event-study specifications show that school openings have simultaneously increased education and the chances to be in a polygamous union for men and, more surprisingly, for women. We estimate a structural model of marriage to explain why education made women more likely to be in a polygamous union. The main estimated channel is marriage to educated men who are more often polygamists than uneducated men, not direct preferences for polygamy.

Keywords: Polygamy; Education; Marriage; Matching models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J12 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387823000238
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Education and polygamy: Evidence from Cameroon (2023)
Working Paper: Education and Polygamy: Evidence from Cameroon (2019)
Working Paper: Education and Polygamy: Evidence from Cameroon (2019)
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:eee:deveco:v:162:y:2023:i:c:s0304387823000238

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103068

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Economics is currently edited by M. R. Rosenzweig

More articles in Journal of Development Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().