 The rise of monogamySERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, 2014, vol. 5, issue 4, 377-397 Abstract: Why has polygyny, marriage of a man to multiple women, common in most societies throughout history, almost disappeared in modern industrialized countries? Do women play a role in its disappearance? A simple theoretical model suggests that at the later stage of the transition from polygyny to monogamy, the spread of human capital and the increase of labor income have led to the rise of monogamy. A general equilibrium model of the marriage market illustrates that the spread of human capital results in an increase in women’s income opportunities and lowers the importance of bequests in determining their sons’ incomes. Both effects improve women’s outside option, mating monogamously, and decrease the marginal benefit of the economic advantages provided by polygynous unions. This, in turn, reduces polygyny by increasing the cost of polygynous mating for men. When the human capital level is sufficiently high, men find it optimal to marry monogamously instead of bearing the high cost of polygynous mating. Copyright The Author(s) 2014 Keywords: Marriage; Polygyny; Monogamy; Development; Human capital; J12; J24; O10; O40; Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:series:v:5:y:2014:i:4:p:377-397 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1007/s13209-014-0113-y Access Statistics for this article SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association is currently edited by Nezih Guner More articles in SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association from Springer, Spanish Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC. |
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