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Education and Freedom of Choice: Evidence from Arranged Marriages in Vietnam

Author

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  • Emran, M. Shahe

    (Columbia University)

  • Maret-Rakotondrazaka, Fenohasina

    (George Washington University)

  • Smith, Stephen C.

    (George Washington University)

Abstract

Using household data from Vietnam, we provide evidence on the effects of education on freedom of spouse choice. We use war disruptions and spatial indicators of schooling supply as instruments. The point estimates indicate that a year of additional schooling reduces the probability of an arranged marriage by about 14 percentage points for an individual with eight years of schooling. We also estimate bounds on the effect of education on arranged marriage when exclusion restrictions are violated locally (the lower bound is six to seven percentage points). The impact of education is strong for women, but significantly weaker for men.

Suggested Citation

  • Emran, M. Shahe & Maret-Rakotondrazaka, Fenohasina & Smith, Stephen C., 2012. "Education and Freedom of Choice: Evidence from Arranged Marriages in Vietnam," IZA Discussion Papers 6862, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6862
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. The Relationship Between Education and Arranged Marriages
      by Ariel Goldring in Free Market Mojo on 2010-10-07 16:00:49
    2. Utbildning och tvångsäktenskap
      by Niclas Berggren in Nonicoclolasos on 2010-10-12 16:30:25

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Anukriti, S & Dasgupta, Shatanjaya, 2017. "Marriage Markets in Developing Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 10556, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Willa Friedman & Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel & Rebecca Thornton, 2016. "Education as Liberation?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(329), pages 1-30, January.
    3. Boulier, Bryan & Emran, M. Shahe & Hoque, Nazmul, 2021. "Access to Credit, Education, and Women’s Say in the Household: Evidence from Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 109009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Maffioli, Elisa M., 2021. "The political economy of health epidemics: Evidence from the Ebola outbreak," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Ali,Rubaba & Barra,Alvaro Federico & Berg,Claudia N. & Damania,Richard & Nash,John D. & Russ,Jason Daniel, 2015. "Infrastructure in conflict-prone and fragile environments : evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7273, The World Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Red River delta; Vietnam; development; freedom of choice; schooling; education; arranged marriage; labour markets; social interactions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

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