title: Economic behavior, marriage and fertility:  two lessons from polygyny.
abstract: "This paper derives and estimates an index of the relative importance of children in marriage by comparing the effect of husband's income on the actual number of wives in the household with the demand for wives derived from the number of children in the household.  Moreover, the paper presents the monogamy bias as a possible explanation for often observed low or negative income effects on fertility."  The data are from two surveys carried out around 1971 in Maiduguri, capital of the Northeastern state of Nigeria.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grossbard-shechtman
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D017954:Africa South of the Sahara; D000354:Africa, Western; D001290:Attitude; D001519:Behavior; D002648:Child; D003710:Demography; D003906:Developing Countries; D004467:Economics; D005298:Fertility; D007182:Income; D008393:Marriage; D009549:Nigeria; D011153:Population; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011584:Psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Africa; Africa South Of The Sahara; Attitude; Behavior; Child Worth; Comparative Studies; Demographic Factors; Developing Countries; Economic Factors; English Speaking Africa; Fertility; Income--men; Marriage; Marriage Patterns; Microeconomic Factors; Nigeria; Nuptiality; Polygyny; Population; Population Dynamics; Psychological Factors; Socioeconomic Factors; Western Africa