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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
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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 

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