Early Marriage, Social Networks and the Transmission of Norms

M Asadullah and Zaki Wahhaj

Studies in Economics from School of Economics, University of Kent

Abstract: We investigate whether female early marriage is a conduit for the transmission of social norms, specifically norms relating to gender roles and rights within the household. We exploit differences in the age of onset of menarche between sisters as an exogenous source of variation in marriage age. This approach allows us to control for beliefs and attitudes that are transmitted from parents to children. We find that early marriage increases agreement with statements supportive of gender bias in the allocation of resources and traditional gender roles. The woman's own schooling, her husband's schooling, and her social network together account for, at most, one-third of the estimated effect, suggesting that the major pathway for norm transmission is the experience of early marriage itself.

Keywords: Gender Roles; Social Norms; Schooling; Household Decision-Making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J16 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-net, nep-soc and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Early Marriage, Social Networks and the Transmission of Norms (2019)
Working Paper: Early marriage, social networks and the transmission of norms (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1602

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