IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v199y2021ics0165176521000057.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does criminalizing discriminatory cultural practices improve women’s welfare? A simple model of Levirate marriage in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Kudo, Yuya

Abstract

Whether cultural practices that discriminate against women should be criminalized is an important consideration for policymakers. In this study, I show that, theoretically, legal prohibition may decrease women’s welfare, by analyzing one cultural practice called “levirate marriage,” which is widely observed in sub-Saharan Africa. According to this practice, because a widow is inherited by the brother or other male relative of her deceased husband, levirate marriage is often seen as a form of forced marriage. However, this practice is also anecdotally believed to provide social protection for widows, as they usually have limited property rights. According to the developed game-theoretic analysis, this practice is selected as an equilibrium when a widow’s other livelihood means are limited and her husband’s clan wishes to continue a family line through generations by keeping sons of the deceased within his extended family. In this equilibrium, the woman obtains her reservation utility plus the net information rent, which is given by the clan to encourage her to produce more sons during marriage. Legally prohibiting this practice makes it costly for the clan to provide this information rent or even offer the levirate marriage. Because this information rent disappears, her welfare may decline. The present investigation serves as an important caution for those who propose an outright ban on an anti-social practice that is seen as violating women’s human rights.

Suggested Citation

  • Kudo, Yuya, 2021. "Does criminalizing discriminatory cultural practices improve women’s welfare? A simple model of Levirate marriage in Africa," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:199:y:2021:i:c:s0165176521000057
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109728
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176521000057
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109728?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lambert, Sylvie & Rossi, Pauline, 2016. "Sons as widowhood insurance: Evidence from Senegal," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 113-127.
    2. Matthias Sutter & Stefan Haigner & Martin G. Kocher, 2010. "Choosing the Carrot or the Stick? Endogenous Institutional Choice in Social Dilemma Situations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(4), pages 1540-1566.
    3. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano & Nathan Nunn, 2013. "On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 469-530.
    4. Nava Ashraf & Erica Field & Jean Lee, 2014. "Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2210-2237, July.
    5. Antony Chapoto & T. S. Jayne & Nicole M. Mason, 2011. "Widows' Land Security in the Era of HIV/AIDS: Panel Survey Evidence from Zambia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 511-547.
    6. Aldashev, Gani & Chaara, Imane & Platteau, Jean-Philippe & Wahhaj, Zaki, 2012. "Using the law to change the custom," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 182-200.
    7. Daron Acemoglu & Matthew O. Jackson, 2017. "Social Norms and the Enforcement of Laws," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 245-295.
    8. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01379302 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Anderson, Siwan & Genicot, Garance, 2015. "Suicide and property rights in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 64-78.
    10. van de Walle, Dominique, 2013. "Lasting Welfare Effects of Widowhood in Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1-19.
    11. Edward Miguel, 2005. "Poverty and Witch Killing," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 1153-1172.
    12. Gani Aldashev & Imane Chaara & Jean-Philippe Platteau & Zaki Wahhaj, 2012. "Formal Law as a Magnet to Reform Custom," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 795-828.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sophia Chae & Victor Agadjanian, 2022. "The Transformation of Polygyny in Sub‐Saharan Africa," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(4), pages 1125-1162, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Genicot, Garance & Hernandez-de-Benito, Maria, 2022. "Women’s land rights and village institutions in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    2. Deschênes, Sarah & Dumas, Christelle & Lambert, Sylvie, 2020. "Household resources and individual strategies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    3. Kudo, Yuya, 2017. "Why Is the Practice of Levirate Marriage Disappearing in Africa? HIV/AIDS as an Agent of Institutional Change," IDE Discussion Papers 627, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    4. Jean-Marie Baland & Roberta Ziparo, 2017. "Intra-household bargaining in poor countries," WIDER Working Paper Series 108, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Alidou, Sahawal & Verpoorten, Marijke, 2019. "Only women can whisper to gods: Voodoo, menopause and women’s autonomy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 40-54.
    6. Giampaolo Lecce & Laura Ogliari & Tommaso Orlando, 2017. "Resistance to Institutions and Cultural Distance: Brigandage in Post-Unification Italy," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2097, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    7. Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay & Bipasha Maity, 2021. "Widowhood and Consumption of Private Assignable Goods: The Role of Socio-Economic Status, Rainfall Shocks and Historical Institutions," Working Papers 73, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    8. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Platteau, Jean-Philippe & Camilotti, Giula, 2017. "Eradicating Women-Hurting Customs: What Role for Social Engineering?," CEPR Discussion Papers 12107, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Jean-Marie Baland & Roberta Ziparo, 2017. "Intra-household bargaining in poor countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-108, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Siwan Anderson, 2022. "Unbundling female empowerment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 1671-1701, November.
    11. Bhalotra, Sonia & Brulé, Rachel & Roy, Sanchari, 2020. "Women's inheritance rights reform and the preference for sons in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    12. Djuikom, Marie Albertine & van de Walle, Dominique, 2022. "Marital status and women’s nutrition in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. Andréa Renk & Clarice Manuel, 2023. "Patriarchy on the map: Women’s empowerment trajectories in Nepal’s changing social context," DeFiPP Working Papers 2304, University of Namur, Development Finance and Public Policies.
    14. Siwan Anderson & Chris Bidner, 2021. "An Institutional Perspective on the Economics of the Family," Discussion Papers dp21-14, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    15. Pedro Naso & Erwin Bulte & Tim Swanson, 2017. "Can there be benefits from competing legal regimes? The impact of legal pluralism in post-conflict Sierra Leone," CIES Research Paper series 56-2017, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    16. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2015. "Corporate Culture, Societal Culture, and Institutions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 336-339, May.
    17. Thomas Baudin & David de la Croix & Paula Gobbi, 2020. "Endogenous Childlessness and Stages of Development," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 83-133.
    18. Olivia Bertelli, 2015. "The more the merrier? Adjusting fertility to weather shocks," PSE Working Papers halshs-01226421, HAL.
    19. Chen, Daniel L. & Levonyan, Vardges & Yeh, Susan, 2016. "Policies Affect Preferences: Evidence from Random Variation in Abortion Jurisprudence," IAST Working Papers 16-58, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    20. Voigt, Stefan, 2022. "Determinant of Social Norms," ILE Working Paper Series 58, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender equality; Informal insurance; Legislation; Levirate marriage; Property rights; Widowhood;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K36 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Family and Personal Law
    • K38 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Human Rights Law; Gender Law; Animal Rights Law
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:199:y:2021:i:c:s0165176521000057. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.