Has the Wedding Between Economics and Anthropology Been Cancelled? Economic Theory and Polygamy

Abstract

This paper uses data from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample of the Human Relations Area Files to test implications of family economic theory related to multiple marriage. As the theory predicts, actions which interfere with the marriage market make most participants worse off. In particular, in those cultures which forbid polygyny, the value of a wife falls. Polygyny disappears in more complex economies, economies in which the value of the quantity of children is relatively less important than the quality of children.