Early Marriage, Age of Menarche, and Female Schooling Attainment in Bangladesh
Abstract
Using data from rural Bangladesh, we explore the hypothesis that women attain less schooling as a result of social and financial pressure to marry young. We isolate the causal effect of marriage timing using age of menarche as an instrumental variable. Our results indicate that each additional year that marriage is delayed is associated with 0.22 additional year of schooling and 5.6 percent higher literacy. Delayed marriage is also associated with an increase in use of preventive health services. In the context of competitive marriage markets, we use the above results to obtain estimates of the change in equilibrium female education that would arise from introducing age of consent laws.
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Delaying the onset of marriage is an important mechanism through which adolescent girls can improve their long-term earnings potential.
“Delaying the onset of marriage is an important mechanism through which adolescent girls can improve their long term earnings potential [Field and Ambrus 2008, Baird et al. 2011].”
From Women's Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa (2020) · cites this paper as Field and Ambrus 2008
Engaging in economic activities and delaying childbearing and marriage is likely to have a major impact on the life trajectories of adolescent girls.
“Engaging in economic activities and delaying childbearing and marriage is likely to have a major impact on the life trajectories of adolescent girls.”
From Women's Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa (2020) · cites this paper as Field and Ambrus 2008
Such delays have been shown, in other contexts, to improve marriage quality, increase decision-making within households and reduce exposure to domestic violence.
“For example, such delays have been shown, in other contexts, to improve marriage quality, increase decision-making within households and reduce exposure to domestic violence [Goldin and Katz 2002, Jensen and Thornton 2003, Field and Ambrus 2008].”
From Women's Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa (2020) · cites this paper as Field and Ambrus 2008
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Genetic Influences on the Timing of Puberty in Mice1
Nelson, J. F., Karelus, K., Felicio, L. S., & Johnson, T. E. (1990) · Biology of Reproduction · doi:10.1095/biolreprod42.4.649 · Cited by 165 · cited 1× · see citing works
“1991) and animal studies (Nelson et al. 1990).”
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Women's Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa
Bandiera, O., Buehren, N., Burgess, R., Goldstein, M., Gulesci, S., Rasul, I., & Sulaiman, M. (2020) · American Economic Journal: Applied Economics · doi:10.1257/app.20170416 · Cited by 311 · see citing works
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Fertility restrictions and life cycle outcomes: evidence from the one-child policy in China
Huang, W., Lei, X., & Sun, A. (2021) · The Review of Economics and Statistics · doi:10.1162/rest_a_00921 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Belachew, T. B., Negash, W. D., Kefale, G. T., Tafere, T. Z., & Asmamaw, D. B. (2022) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-022-14840-z · Cited by 44 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Field, E., & Ambrus, A.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- ORCID
- Ambrus, Attila
- Venue
- Journal of Political Economy
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 2008-10
- Volume
- 116
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 881-930
- ISSN
- 0022-3808 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-534X
- OpenAlex
- W2115580254
- Cited by
- 592
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 51 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 51 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 50 · 2018: 45 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 27.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Political Economy (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Marriage and Family Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- early marriage, marriage timing, age at menarche, women's education, women's literacy, marriage market, preventive medicine, rural Bangladesh, gender inequality
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