Peer-reviewed article
Income Shocks and Partnership Formation: Evidence from Malawi.
Adria Molotsky ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines how negative income shocks affect marriage patterns among young people in Malawi. The research finds that households experiencing economic shocks are more likely to marry off their daughters as a coping mechanism, particularly in patrilineal communities and among girls already out of school. Young men show no similar effect, while young women also appear more likely to engage in transactional sexual relationships following shocks.
Key points
- Child marriage functions as a household coping mechanism after negative income shocks in patrilineal Malawi
- The effect on marriage is strongest for young women who are already out of school
- No significant effect on young men's marriage rates following income shocks
- Young women show suggestive evidence of increased transactional sexual relationships after shocks
- Lineage system (patrilineal vs. matrilineal) moderates the relationship between income shocks and child marriage
Limitations
The document does not specify the study's sample size, the types of income shocks examined, or the magnitude of effect sizes. The findings are observational and do not provide detailed quantitative evidence of the mechanisms linking shocks to these outcomes, nor do they address potential confounding factors in detail.
Abstract
The ever-increasing prevalence of negative shocks experienced by poor, vulnerable households often induces extreme measures as ways to recover from the negative effects on income. Child marriage is one of the coping mechanisms households may use. This study examines whether young people in households that experience a negative shock are more likely to marry than those not experiencing a shock, and whether this effect differs by lineage system. I show that marrying off daughters is, in fact, a coping mechanism used by patrilineal households after experiencing a shock and that these effects are potentially strongest for young women who are already out of school. Conversely, I find no significant effect for young men. Additionally, I find suggestive evidence of an increased likelihood of young women engaging in transactional sexual relationships after a shock as an individual-level coping mechanism. Understanding the mechanisms leading to the increased incidence of these phenomena provides valuable information that can help combat such practices.