Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-2l2gl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T20:13:44.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

MARRIAGE PAYMENTS AND WOMEN'S BARGAINING POWER IN RURAL BANGLADESH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2018

Nazia Mansoor
Nazia Mansoor*
Affiliation:
University of Kent
*
Address correspondence to: Nazia Mansoor, School of Economics, University of Kent, Keynes College, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NP, UK; e-mail: naziamansoor@hotmail.com
Get access

Abstract:

This study examines the postmarriage bargaining power of women—specifically, their decision-making power with regard to fertility—vis-à-vis imbalances in matching in the marriage market. Applying a multinomial logit model to data on rural Bangladesh for 1998/99, the study gauges women's relative empowerment: (i) at the time of marriage (measured by the bride price as a share of total marriage payments) and (ii) postmarriage (measured by women's use of the contraceptive pill). The empirical findings reveal that a higher bride price (as a share of total household marriage payments) has three main outcomes: it increases the predicted probability of women (i) using the contraceptive pill, (ii) spacing births further apart, and (iii) choosing to have fewer children.

Keywords

Bangladeshwomen's bargaining powermarriage paymentsdowrybridepricecontraceptive usecontraceptive pillnumber of children bornchild spacing
Type
Research Papers
Information
Journal of Demographic Economics , Volume 84 , Special Issue 1: Gender, Family and Development , March 2018 , pp. 79 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arunachalam, Raj and Naidu, Suresh (2010) The price of fertility: Marriage markets and family planning in Bangladesh. Unpublished manuscript. Retrieved from http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~snaidu/papers/dowry_treat_wtables.pdf.Google Scholar
Bankole, Akinrinola and Singh, Susheela (1998) Couples’ fertility and contraceptive decision-making in developing countries: Hearing the man's voice. International Family Planning Perspectives 24 (1), 15–24.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. (1991) A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browning, Martin, Bourguignon, François, Chiappori, Pierre-André, and Lechene, Valérie (1994) Income and outcomes: A structural model of intrahousehold allocation. Journal of Political Economy 102 (6), 1067–1096.Google Scholar
Chiappori, Pierre-André and Oreffice, Sonia (2008) Birth control and female empowerment: An equilibrium analysis. Journal of Political Economy 116 (1), 113–140.Google Scholar
Diebolt, Claude and Perrin, Faustine (2013) From stagnation to sustained growth: The role of female empowerment. American Economic Review 103 (3), 545–549.Google Scholar
Esteve-Volart, Berta (2004) Dowry in rural Bangladesh: Participation as insurance against divorce. Unpublished manuscript, London School of Economics. Retrieved from http://dept.econ.yorku.ca/%7Eberta/dowry_web.pdf.Google Scholar
Eswaran, Mukesh (2002) The empowerment of women, fertility, and child mortality: Towards a theoretical analysis. Journal of Population Economics, 15 (3), 433–454.Google Scholar
Francis, Andrew M. (2011) Sex ratios and the red dragon: Using the Chinese Communist Revolution to explore the effect of the sex ratio on women and children in Taiwan. Journal of Population Economics 24 (3), 813–837.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia and Katz, Laurence F. (2002) The power of the pill: Oral contraceptives and women's career and marriage decisions. Journal of Political Economy 110 (4), 730–770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guinnane, Timothy W. (2011) The historical fertility transition: A guide for economists. Journal of Economic Literature 49 (3), 589–614.Google Scholar
Kamal, S. M. Mostafa and Islam, Aynul (2010) Contraceptive use: Socioeconomic correlates and method choices in rural Bangladesh. Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health 22 (4), 436–450.Google Scholar
Khan, Mehrab Ali (1996) Factors affecting use of contraception in MATLAB, Bangladesh. Journal of Biosocial Science 28, 265–279.Google Scholar
Lundberg, Shelly and Pollak, Robert A. (1993) Separate spheres bargaining and the marriage market. Journal of Political Economy 101 (6), 988–1010.Google Scholar
Mannan, Haider Rashid (2002) Factors in contraception method choice in Bangladesh: Goals, competence, evaluation and access. Contraception, 65, 357–364.Google Scholar
Michael, Robert T. and Willis, Robert J. (1976) Contraception and fertility: Household production under uncertainty. In N. E. Terleckyj (ed.), Household Production and Consumption, Vol. 40, pp. 25–98. NBER, Columbia: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Pitt, Mark M., Khandker, Shahidur R., and Cartwright, Jennifer (2006) Empowering women with microfinance: Evidence from Bangladesh. Economic Development and Cultural Change 54 (4), 791–831.Google Scholar
Rasul, Imran (2008) Household bargaining over fertility: Theory and evidence from Malaysia. Journal of Development Economics 86 (2), 215–241.Google Scholar
Todaro, Michael P. and Smith, Stephen C. (2009) Economic Development, 10th ed. Harlow: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Upadhyay, Ushma D., Gipson, Jessica D., Withers, Mellissa, Lewis, Shayna, Ciaraldi, Erica J., Fraser, Ashley, Huchko, Megan J., and Prata, Ndola (2014) Women's empowerment and fertility: A review of the literature. Social Science and Medicine 115, 111–120.Google Scholar
Weis, Peter (1993) The contraceptive potential of breastfeeding in Bangladesh. Studies in Family Planning 24 (2), 100–108.Google Scholar
Yeakey, Marissa Pine, Muntifering, Carie J., Ramachandran, Daesha V., Myint, YeMon, Creanga, Andreea A., and Tsui, Amy O. (2009) How contraceptive use affects birth intervals: Results of a literature review. Studies in Family Planning 40 (3), 205–214.Google Scholar