Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Lucia Corno
Author-X-Name-First: Lucia
Author-X-Name-Last: Corno
Author-Email: lucia.corno@unicatt.it
Author-Workplace-Name: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Author-Workplace-Name: Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Author-Name: Nicole Hildebrandt
Author-X-Name-First: Nicole 
Author-X-Name-Last: Hildebrandt
Author-Name: Alessandra Voena
Author-X-Name-First: Alessandra 
Author-X-Name-Last: Voena




Title: Weather Shocks, Age of Marriage and the Direction of Marriage Payments


Abstract: In this paper, we examine the impact of variation in local economic
conditions on the hazard into child marriage (i.e. prior to age
18) among young women in Africa and India. We show that rainfall
shocks, a major source of income variation in these areas, have similar
effects on crop yields but opposite effects on the early marriage
hazard in the two regions: in Africa, droughts increase the hazard
into early marriage, while in India, droughts decrease the hazard. We
argue that the differential impact of drought on the marriage hazard
can be explained by differences in the direction of traditional marriage
payments in each region (bride price in Africa and dowry in India).
Our results highlight the importance of understanding the relationship
between prevailing cultural norms and household responses to
economic shocks; as we show here, differences in prevailing customs
can result in dramatically different household responses to aggregate
income fluctuations..
Length: 62
Creation-Date: 2016-05
File-URL: http://dipartimenti.unicatt.it/economia-finanza-def040.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
File-Function: First version, 2016
Number: def040
Classification-JEL: J1, O15. 
Keywords: Income shocks, informal insurance, marriage, Africa,
India, dowry, bride.
Handle: RePEc:ctc:serie1:def040