| Explaining inter-ethnic marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Authors: |
Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay and Elliott Green |
| Source: |
Journal of International Development, Volume 33, Issue 4; https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3535 |
| Topic(s): |
Education
Employment
Ethnicity
Marriage
Polygyny
|
| Country: |
Africa
Multiple African Countries
|
| Published: |
MAY 2021 |
| Abstract: |
We use Demographic and Health Survey data to undertake the largest ever examination into the causes of inter-ethnic marriage in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa and document a number of novel findings. First, we show that inter-ethnic marriage rates are high, at 19.4% on average, vary significantly across countries and are rising over time. Second, we show that individual variables associated with modernization such as urbanization, literacy/education and declines in polygamy and agricultural employment are correlated with inter-ethnic marriage. Third, we show that inter-ethnic marriage is quadratically correlated with ethnic group size and negatively correlated with both educational homogamy and country-population size. |
| Web: |
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jid.3535 |