From Polygyny to Serial Monogamy: A Unified Theory of Marriage Institutions
@article{delaCroix2012FromPT, title={From Polygyny to Serial Monogamy: A Unified Theory of Marriage Institutions}, author={David de la Croix and Fabio Mariani}, journal={European Economics: Political Economy \& Public Economics eJournal}, year={2012} }
Consider an economy populated by males and females, both rich and poor. The society has to choose one of the following marriage institutions: polygyny, strict monogamy, and serial monogamy (divorce and remarriage). After having identified the conditions under which each of these equilibria exists, we show that a rise in the share of rich males can explain a change of regime from polygyny to monogamy. The introduction of serial monogamy follows from a further rise in either the proportion of…
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