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Where Did it Go Wrong ?Marriage and Divorce in Malawi

Author

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  • Laurens Cherchye
  • Bram De Rock
  • Selma Telalagic Walther
  • Frederic Vermeulen
Abstract
Do individuals divorce for economic reasons? Can we measure theattractiveness of new matches in the marriage market? We answer thesequestions using a structural model of the household and a rich panel datasetfrom Malawi. We propose a model of the household with consumption,production and revealed preference conditions for stability on the marriagemarket. We define marital instability in terms of the consumption gains toremarrying another individual in the same marriage market, and to beingsingle. We find that a 1 percentage point increase in the wife's estimatedconsumption gains from remarriage is significantly associated with a 0.6percentage point increase in divorce probability in the next three years. Ina multinomial model, higher values of consumption gains from remarriageraise the odds of divorce and remarriage but not of divorce and singleness.These findings provide out-of-sample validation of the structural model andshed new light on the economic determinants of divorce.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Selma Telalagic Walther & Frederic Vermeulen, 2016. "Where Did it Go Wrong ?Marriage and Divorce in Malawi," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2016-11, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/228335
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    Cited by:

    1. Deininger, Klaus & Xia, Fang & Kilic, Talip & Moylan, Heather, 2021. "Investment impacts of gendered land rights in customary tenure systems: Substantive and methodological insights from Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    2. Mikhail Freer & Khushboo Surana, 2023. "Stable Marriage, Children, and Intrahousehold Allocations," Papers 2302.08541, arXiv.org.
    3. Shyamal Chowdhury & Debdulal Mallick & Prabal Roy Chowdhury, 2017. "Natural Shock and Marriage Markets: Evolution of Mehr and Dowry in Muslim Marriages," Discussion Papers 17-02, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    4. Kazungu, Khatibu & Byaro, Mwoya, 2023. "Road to Divorce in Tanzania: What are the Main Factors?," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 11(5), December.
    5. Mikhail Freer & Khushboo Surana, 2021. "Marital Stability With Committed Couples: A Revealed Preference Analysis," Papers 2110.10781, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2024.
    6. Ugo Bolletta & Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock & Luca Paolo Merlino, 2024. "Identifying Marriage Markets," Working Papers ECARES 2024-12, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Martin Browning & Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen, 2024. "Spouses with Benefits: on Match Quality and Consumption inside Households," Working Papers ECARES 2024-11, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Chowdhury, Shyamal & Mallick, Debdulal & Roy Chowdhury, Prabal, 2020. "Natural shocks and marriage markets: Fluctuations in mehr and dowry in Muslim marriages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    9. Djuikom, Marie Albertine & van de Walle, Dominique, 2022. "Marital status and women’s nutrition in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Elin Colmsjoe, 2024. "A Flying Start: The Long-Run Effects of Inter Vivos Transfers," CEBI working paper series 24-02, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    marriage market; divorce; Malawi; agricultural production; revealed preference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

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