[go: up one dir, main page]

  EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

African polygamy: Past and present

James Fenske

No 2012-20, CSAE Working Paper Series from Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford

Abstract: Motivated by a simple model, I use DHS data to test nine hypotheses about the prevalence and decline of African polygamy. First, greater female involvement in agriculture does not increase polygamy. Second, past inequality better predicts polygamy today than does current inequality. Third, the slave trade only predicts polygamy across broad regions. Fourth, modern female education does not reduce polygamy. Colonial schooling does. Fifth, economic growth has eroded polygamy. Sixth and seventh, rainfall shocks and war increase polygamy, though their effects are small. Eighth, polygamy varies smoothly over borders, national bans notwithstanding. Finally, falling child mortality has reduced polygamy.

Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:cb68e03e-8e13-4af6-8d56-227ef0e38710 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: African polygamy: Past and present (2015) Downloads
Working Paper: African polygamy: Past and present (2012) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:csa:wpaper:2012-20

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CSAE Working Paper Series from Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Julia Coffey ().

 
Page updated 2024-12-21
Handle: RePEc:csa:wpaper:2012-20