On the timing of marriage, cattle, and weather shocks in rural Zimbabwe

Johannes Hoogeveen, Bas van der Klaauw and Gijsbert Van Lomwel

No 3112, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The authors focus on the timing of marriages of women in rural Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean marriages are associated with bride welath payments, which are transfers from (the family of) the groom to the bride's family. Unmarried daughters could therefore be considered assets who, at time of need, can be cashed in. The authors investigate to what extent the timing of a marriage of a daughter is affected by the economic conditions of the household from which she originates. They distinguish household-specific wealth levels and two types of shocks--correlated (weather) shocks and idiosyncratic shocks. The authors estimate a duration model using a unique panel survey of Zimbabwean smallholder farmers. The estimation results support the hypothesis that the timing of marriage is affected by household characteristics. Girls from households that experiences a negative (idiosyncratic) shock in their assets are more likely to marry.

Keywords: Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Anthropology; Population&Development; Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems; Livestock&Animal Husbandry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-08-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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