African polygamy: Past and present

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fenske, James
• 署名单位: University of Oxford
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.06.005
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 58-73
• 关键词: Polygamy; AFRICA; Ethnic institutions; Family structures

摘要

I evaluate the impact of education on polygamy in Africa. Districts of French West Africa that received more colonial teachers and parts of sub-Saharan Africa that received Protestant or Catholic missions have lower polygamy rates in the present. I find no evidence of a causal effect of modem education on polygamy. Natural experiments that have expanded education in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Kenya have not reduced polygamy. Colonial education and missionary education, then, have been more powerful sources of cultural change than the cases of modem schooling I consider. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.