Bride Price and Fertility Decisions: Evidence from Rural Senegal

Abstract

This paper provides evidence about the relationship between bride price payments and fertility decisions in Senegal. Higher bride price payments reduce the fertility pressure for women with results being robust to confounding socio-economic and contextual factors. The fertility-reducing impact is greater for women who are economically dependent on their husbands. In polygamous households and for arranged marriages, a lower bride price increases fertility pressure while in monogamous households and for non-arranged marriages, the bride price does not affect fertility. As bride price payments have less power over (economically) independent women, empowerment will give leeway to girls in traditional societies.

Bride price and the well-being of women

“…Once these covariates are added, the coefficient becomes insignificant and very close to zero. Given the close association between early marriage and higher fertility, this finding is also consistent with the finding, in both this study and in Mbaye and Wagner (2013), of no relationship between the value of the bride price and fertility.…”

“…According to their estimates, if bride price increases by 100 per cent-a very large increase-fertility falls by only 0.04 children. Thus, taken together, our findings and the findings from Mbaye and Wagner (2013) seem to indicate that the value of the bride price appears to have no sizeable or robust relationship with fertility.…”

“…Although we estimated a positive relationship, the point estimates were generally not statistically different from zero. Along somewhat similar lines, the estimates from Mbaye and Wagner (2013) are only marginally significant and they are very small in magnitude. According to their estimates, if bride price increases by 100 per cent-a very large increase-fertility falls by only 0.04 children.…”

“…We next turn to studies that examine potential consequences of bride price values. In a recent working paper, Mbaye and Wagner (2013) examine over 2,000 respondents from eight regions in Senegal and find that a higher bride price is associated with lower fertility. They also find that this relationship is statistically significant.…”

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

“…income, although partly paid in installments (Decker and Hoogeveen, 2002). Relying on DHS data, Anderson (2007) reports that bride price was paid in about two-thirds of marriages in rural Uganda in the 1990s, down from 98% in the period between 1960-1980 and 88% from 1980-1990. In a large-scale survey conducted by Mbaye and Wagner (2013) in rural Senegal in 2009-2011, bride price was paid in nearly all marriages. Ashraf, Bau, Nunn, and Voena (2016) document that the practice is widespread in modern-day Lusaka (Zambia), with payments often exceeding annual per capita GDP.…”