Author: Clementine SadaniaPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
In many countries, marriage is the occasion of major economic transfers between the spouses' families. Since marriage payments have the potential to shape women's welfare, it is essential to understand how they themselves are determined. We study the impact of male international migration on marriage payments in Egypt. We use a unique feature of Muslim marriage contracts, where payments given to the wife by the husband have different implications on the wife's and the husband's relative ability to exit marriage. We investigate variations across time and space in these marriage payments and exploit exogenous changes in migration. We find that male migration negatively affects those marriage payments that increase women's options outside of marriage and positively influences a payment that decreases their options. These findings indicate that migration of males changes the bargaining power of men and women on the marriage market.
