Where Did It Go Wrong? Marriage and Divorce in Malawi

Laurens Cherchye, Bram De Rock, Selma Walther and Frederic Vermeulen

No 9843, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Do individuals divorce for economic reasons? Can we measure the attractiveness of new matches in the marriage market? We answer these questions using a structural model of the household and a rich panel dataset from Malawi. We propose a model of the household with consumption, production and revealed preference conditions for stability on the marriage market. We define marital instability in terms of the consumption gains to remarrying another individual in the same marriage market, and to being single. We find that a 1 percentage point increase in the wife's estimated consumption gains from remarriage is significantly associated with a 0:6 percentage point increase in divorce probability in the next three years. In a multinomial model, higher values of consumption gains from remarriage raise the odds of divorce and remarriage but not of divorce and singleness. These findings provide out-of-sample validation of the structural model and shed new light on the economic determinants of divorce.

Keywords: agricultural production; Malawi; divorce; marriage market; revealed preference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D11 D12 D13 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2016-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - published in: Quantitative Economics, 2021, 12 (2), 505 - 545

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Related works:
Journal Article: Where did it go wrong? Marriage and divorce in Malawi (2021)
Working Paper: Where Did it Go Wrong ?Marriage and Divorce in Malawi (2016)
Working Paper: Where did it go wrong? Marriage and divorce in Malawi (2016)
Working Paper: Where Did It Go Wrong? Marriage and Divorce In Malawi (2016)
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