Age at marriage, social norms, and female education in Nepal

We study the impact of age at marriage on female education. We hypothesize that in cultures where women marry young, parents discount the pecuniary benefits of educating girls; the earlier the anticipated age at marriage the greater this discount. We empirically test this effect using household data...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inReview of development economics Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 878 - 909
Main Authors Jafarey, Saqib, Mainali, Ram, Montes‐Rojas, Gabriel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.08.2020
Subjects
Age
Dowry
education
Females
gender
Marriage
Nepal
Social norms
Women
Women's education
Nepal
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Summary:We study the impact of age at marriage on female education. We hypothesize that in cultures where women marry young, parents discount the pecuniary benefits of educating girls; the earlier the anticipated age at marriage the greater this discount. We empirically test this effect using household data from Nepal. We control for potential endogeneity of age at marriage by exploiting variations in cultural norms regarding dowry and differences in the average age of female marriage among ethnicities and regions as instrumental variables. The econometric results support the hypothesis that female education is negatively affected by cultural norms that favor early marriage.
ISSN:1363-6669
1467-9361
DOI:10.1111/rode.12692