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Commodity Price Shocks and Child Marriage: Evidence from Coffee Regions in East Africa

Lowe, Brittany
http://orcid.org/0009-0001-4775-8009
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1689786223469024

Abstract Details

2023, Master of Arts, Miami University, Economics.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of child marriage in the world today, despite laws and policies targeted at reducing these rates. The region also commonly participates in the traditional practice of bride price payments, a monetary or in kind transfer of gifts from the groom’s family to the wife’s family around the timing of marriage. Bride price practices incentivize families to make economic decisions about their daughter’s marriage and affect the equilibrium of the marriage market. In this paper, I consider how an agricultural commodity price shock affects the probability of child marriage in East Africa using a differences-in-differences-style methodology. I find that a 1 percent increase in the global coffee price increases the rate of child marriage by .66 percentage points for girls in coffee regions compared to non-coffee regions. Mechanisms, including labor allocation within a household and the opportunity cost of paying a bride price during an income shock, are discussed in tandem with the results.
Gregory Niemesh (Advisor)
Jenny Minier (Committee Member)
Riley Acton (Committee Member)
32 p.
Economics
coffee; child marriage; economic development; economics; Sub-Saharan Africa; East Africa; Tanzania; Ethiopia; Kenya; commodity; bride price; difference-in-difference; DID; child bride;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lowe, B. (2023). Commodity Price Shocks and Child Marriage: Evidence from Coffee Regions in East Africa [Master's thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1689786223469024

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lowe, Brittany. Commodity Price Shocks and Child Marriage: Evidence from Coffee Regions in East Africa. 2023. Miami University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1689786223469024.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lowe, Brittany. "Commodity Price Shocks and Child Marriage: Evidence from Coffee Regions in East Africa." Master's thesis, Miami University, 2023. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1689786223469024

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1689786223469024
141
© 2023, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.