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Returns to Education in the Marriage Market : Bride Price and School Reform in Egypt

Author

Listed:
  • Jingyuan Deng
  • Nelly Elmallakh
  • Luca Flabbi
  • Roberta V. Gatti

Abstract

This paper investigates the marriage market returns to female education by examining the resources transferred from the groom to the bride and her family at the time of marriage, known as the bride price, as well as the husband’s imputed permanent income as an additional source of returns. The study exploits a school reform in Egypt that reduced the number of years required to complete primary education from six to five, creating exogenous variations in the timing of treatment across schools due to its staggered roll-out. To address identification issues, an instrumental variable estimator combined with a Two-Way Fixed Effects (TWFE) model at the birth year and primary school levels is employed. The findings reveal that the estimated return on a bride’s compulsory education is over three times higher in bride price and 20% higher in the husband’s imputed permanent income compared to those without compulsory education. These substantial marriage market returns outweigh labor market returns at the extensive margin of employment. Further empirical evidence suggests that higher female education potentially signals positive outcomes in terms of home production and child-rearing in Egypt, while educational assortative mating also appears to be an important mechanism.

Suggested Citation

  • Jingyuan Deng & Nelly Elmallakh & Luca Flabbi & Roberta V. Gatti, 2023. "Returns to Education in the Marriage Market : Bride Price and School Reform in Egypt," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10288, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10288
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gustaf Bruze, 2015. "Male And Female Marriage Returns To Schooling," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(1), pages 207-234, February.
    2. Farzana Afridi & Taryn Dinkelman & Kanika Mahajan, 2018. "Why are fewer married women joining the work force in rural India? A decomposition analysis over two decades," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(3), pages 783-818, July.
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