Underage Brides and Grooms' Education

Dessy, Sylvain and Diarra, Setou and Pongou, Roland (2017): Underage Brides and Grooms' Education. Forthcoming in:

Abstract

Public intervention addressing the issue of underage marriage emphasizes policies such as girls' education and enforcement of age-of-consent laws as promising avenues for ending this harmful practice. It has been argued, however, that such policies will work better in societies where there are supported by men. Yet, there is no study analyzing the role of males' characteristics in relation to early marriage. This paper examines the causal effect of a male's education on the likelihood that he marries an underage girl. Using micro-level data from Nigeria in combination with plausible instrumental variables that address potential endogeneity issues, we find that having more years of schooling significantly reduces the probability of marrying an underage girl. Importantly, we show that this negative relationship is not a mere mechanical effect reflecting the endogeneity between schooling and marriage-timing decisions. Moreover, we find that this relationship is weaker in communities where norms that cast women in submissive roles are stronger. We develop a model that explains this causal effect as resulting from the complementarity between father's and mother's education in the production of child quality.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Underage Marriage; Male Education; Nigeria; Patriarchal Norms.
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J12 - Marriage ; Marital Dissolution ; Family Structure ; Domestic Abuse; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J13 - Fertility ; Family Planning ; Child Care ; Children ; Youth; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O12 - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

References

Ahmed, A. and C. del Ninno (2002): "The Food For Education Program in Bangladesh," FCND briefs 138, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Akerlof, G. (1976): "The Economics of Caste and of the Rat Race and other Woeful Tales," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 599-617.

Anderson, S. (2007): "The Economics of Dowry and Brideprice," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21, 151-174.

Angrist, J. (2002): "How Do Sex Ratios Affect Marriage and Labor Markets? Evidence from America's Second Generation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117, 997-1038.

Angrist, J. D. and V. Lavy (1996): "The Effect of Teen Childbearing and Single Parenthood on Childhood Disabilities and Progress in School," Tech. rep., National Bureau of Economic Research.

Ashraf, N., E. Field, and J. Lee (2014): "Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia," The American Economic Review, 104, 2210-2237.

Becker, G. S. (1981): "Altruism in the Family and Selfishness in the Market Place," Economica, 48, 1-15.

Becker, G. S. and H. G. Lewis (1973):"On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Political Economy, 81, S279-S288.

Becker, G. S., K. M. Murphy, and R. Tamura (1990):"Human Capital, Fertility, and Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, 98, S12-37.

Borjas, G. J. (1992):"Ethnic Capital and Intergenerational Mobility," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107, 123-150.

Buckles, K. (2008): "Understanding the Returns to Delayed Childbearing for Working Women," The American Economic Review, 98, 403-07.

Budig, M. J. and P. England (2001):"The Wage Penalty for Motherhood," American Sociological Review, 204-225.

Card, D. (2001): "Estimating the Return to Schooling: Progress on some Persistent Econometric Problems," Econometrica, 69, 1127-1160.

Chevalier, A., C. Harmon, V. O'Sullivan, and I. Walker (2013): "The Impact of Parental Income and Education on the Schooling of Children," Papers WP468, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

Chowdhury, A. and M. M. Patnaik (2010): "Empowering Boys and Men to Achieve Gender Equality in India," Journal of Developing Societies, 26, 455-471.

De La Croix, D. and M. Doepke (2003): "Inequality and Growth: Why Differential Fertility Matters," The American Economic Review, 93, 1091-1113.

Dev, P., B. U. Mberu, and R. Pongou (2016): "Ethnic Inequality: Theory and Evidence from Formal Education in Nigeria," Economic Development and Cultural Change, 64, 603-660.

Doss, C. (2013): "Intrahousehold Bargaining and Resource Allocation in Developing Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6337, The World Bank.

Duflo, E., P. Dupas, and M. Kremer (2015): "Education, HIV, and Early Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Kenya," The American Economic Review, 105, 2757-2797.

Duncan, G. J., K. T. Lee, M. Rosales-Rueda, K. Ariel, and K. Ziol-Guest (2015): "Maternal Age and Child Achievement," Tech. rep.

Dyer, S., N. Abrahams, N. Mokoena, and Z. van der Spuy (2004): "`You are a Man Because you Have Children': Experiences, Reproductive Health Knowledge and Treatment-seeking Behaviour among Men Suffering from Couple Infertility in South Africa," Human Reproduction, 19, 960-967.

Farré, L. (2011): "The Role of Men for Gender Equality," Tech. rep., World Development Report 2012.

Farré, L. and F. Vella (2013): "The Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Role Attitudes and its Implications for Female Labour Force Participation," Economica, 80, 219-247.

Field, E. and A. Ambrus (2008): "Early Marriage, Age of Menarche, and Female Schooling Attainment in Bangladesh," Journal of Political Economy, 116, 881-930.

Herbers, J. E., J. Cutuli, T. L. Lafavor, D. Vrieze, C. Leibel, J. Obradovic,cand A. S. Masten (2011): "Direct and Indirect Effects of Parenting on the Academic Functioning of Young Homeless Children," Early Education & Development, 22, 77-104.

Hoddinott, J. (1992): "Rotten Kids or Manipulative Parents: Are Children Old Age Security in Western Kenya?" Economic Development and Cultural Change, 40, 545-565.

Horowitz, D. L. (1985): Ethnic Groups in Conflict, Univ of California Press.

Jacoby, H. G. and G. Mansuri (2010): ""Watta Satta": Bride Exchange and Women's Welfare in Rural Pakistan," The American Economic Review, 100, 1804-1825.

Jayachandran, S. (2015): "The Roots of Gender Inequality in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, 7, 63-88.

Jensen, R. and R. Thornton (2003): "Early Female Marriage in the DevelopingWorld," Gender & Development, 11, 9-19.

Jones, N., B. Tefera, J. Stephenson, T. Gupta, and P. Pereznieto (2014): "Early Marriage and Education: the Complex Role of Social Norms in Shaping Ethiopian Adolescent Girls' Lives," .

Lambert, S. and P. Rossi (2016): "Sons as Widowhood Insurance: Evidence from Senegal," Journal of Development Economics, 120, 113-127.

Leigh, A. and X. Gong (2010): "Does Maternal Age Affect Children's Test Scores?" Australian Economic Review, 43, 12-27.

Malhotra, A., R. Pande, and C. Grown (2003): "Impact of Investments in Female Education on Gender Equality," International Center for Research on Women, 35.

Marteleto, L. J. and M. Dondero (2013): "Maternal Age at First Birth and Adolescent Education in Brazil," Demographic Research, 28, 793-820.

Oliveira, J. (2016): "The Value of Children: Inter-generational Support, Fertility, and Human Capital," Journal of Development Economics, 120, 1-16.

Pongou, R. and R. Serrano (2016): "Volume of Trade and Dynamic Network Formation in Two-sided Economies," Journal of Mathematical Economics, 63, 147-163.

Ringheim, K. and C. Feldman-Jacobs (2009): "Engaging Men for Gender Equality and Improved Reproductive Health," Washington DC Population Reference Bureau [PRB].

Serafino, P. and R. Tonkin (2014): "Intergenerational Predictors Of Poverty in the UK and EU," in IARIW Conference, the Netherlands.

Serra, R. (2009): "Child Fostering in Africa: When Labor and Schooling Motives may Coexist," Journal of Development Economics, 88, 157-170.

Stephenson, R., A. Baschieri, S. Clements, M. Hennink, and N. Madise (2007): "Contextual Influences on Modern Contraceptive Use in Sub-Saharan Africa," American Journal of Public Health, 97, 1233-1240.

Thomas, D., J. Strauss, and M.-H. Henriques (1991): "How Does Mother's Education Affect Child Height?" Journal of Human Resources, 26, 183-211.

UNICEF (2014): "Ending Child Marriage: Progress and Prospects," New York: UNICEF.

UNICEF (2016): "The State of the World's Children 2016: A fair Chance for Every Child," Report, UNICEF.

Vogelstein, R. (2013): Ending Child Marriage: How Elevating the Status of Girls Advances U.S. Foreign Policy Objectives, Council on Foreign Relations.

Vogl, T. S. (2016): "Differential Fertility, Human Capital, and Development," The Review of Economic Studies, 83, 365-401.

Wantchekon, L., M. Klasnja, and N. Novta (2015): "Education and Human Capital Externalities: Evidence from Colonial Benin," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130, 703-757.

Wilde, E. T., L. Batchelder, and D. T. Ellwood (2010): "The Mommy Track Divides: The Impact of Childbearing on Wages of Women of Differing Skill Levels," Working Paper 16582, National Bureau of Economic Research.