Affording expensive ceremonies: Evidence from quinceañeras in Mexico

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Suzuki, Mizuhiro
• 署名单位: Capital One Financial Corporation
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103448
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: Festivals; credit; Saving; Small and medium enterprises; social networks

摘要

Despite their limited resources, low-income households in developing countries spend considerably on festivals and ceremonies. How do they afford this, and how do such events affect their economic outcomes? I address these questions using a coming-of-age ceremony in Latin cultures called a quincea & ntilde;era. To overcome the endogeneity associated with ceremony timing, I exploit a unique feature of quincea & ntilde;eras that only households with a 15-year-old girl have the ceremony. With repeated cross-sectional data from Mexico, I show that households fund quincea & ntilde;eras using savings, transfers from other households, and increased labor supply by mothers. However, quincea & ntilde;eras decrease the probability that households engage in non-agricultural businesses, suggesting that ceremonial expenses crowd out business resources. My study provides insights into how households facing incomplete credit markets in developing countries manage large expenditures.