Matz Julia Anna
Center for Development Research (ZEFb), University of Bonn, Walter-Flex-Str. 3, 53113, Bonn, Germany.
Demography. 2016 Oct;53(5):1319-1350. doi: 10.1007/s13524-016-0506-6.
This study sheds light on the development of family structures in a polygamous context with a particular emphasis on wife order, and offers an explanation for the association between outcomes of children and the status of their mothers among wives based on observable maternal characteristics. In a simple framework, I propose that selection into rank among wives with respect to female productivity takes place: highly productive women are more strongly demanded in the marriage market than less productive women, giving them a higher chance of becoming first wives. Furthermore, productivity is positively associated with a wife's bargained share of family income to be spent on consumption and investment for herself and her offspring because of greater contributions to family income and larger outside options. The findings are empirically supported by a positive relationship between indicators of female productivity and women's levels of seniority among wives, and by a concise replication of existing evidence relating wife order to children's educational outcomes in household survey data from rural Ethiopia.
本研究揭示了一夫多妻制背景下家庭结构的发展情况，特别强调了妻子的排序，并基于可观察到的母亲特征，对子女的成长结果与其母亲在妻子中的地位之间的关联作出了解释。在一个简单的框架中，我提出，在妻子中根据女性生产力进行等级选择的情况会发生：在婚姻市场上，高生产力的女性比低生产力的女性更受需求，这使她们有更高的机会成为第一任妻子。此外，由于对家庭收入的贡献更大且外部选择更多，生产力与妻子在家庭收入中用于自身及后代消费和投资的议价份额呈正相关。女性生产力指标与妻子中的资历水平之间的正向关系，以及在埃塞俄比亚农村家庭调查数据中对将妻子排序与子女教育成果相关的现有证据的简要复制，从实证上支持了这些发现。
