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Title: Natural Shocks and Marriage Market: The Case of Arsenic Exposure in Rural Bangladesh Natural Shocks and Marriage Market: The Case of Arsenic Exposure in Rural Bangladesh Natural Shocks and Marriage Market: The Case of Arsenic Exposure in Rural Bangladesh

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2018

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Abstract: Arsenic contamination of drinking water has caused a major health emergency in Bangladesh owing to multiple health problems associated with it, which range from skin lesions to various types of cancers. However, it remained largely unknown and became a public knowledge only in 2002 through a nationwide information campaign. We study marriage patterns in Bangladesh and associate them with the information campaign which informed people about harmful health effects of arsenic and marked water sources into safe or unsafe categories. Using difference-indifference we analyse the age at marriage for males and the bride price agreed at the time of marriage and find that both of them reduce in arsenic affected areas in comparison to non-arsenic affected areas in response to information campaign. Our results are indicative of a behavioural change in marriage market found using census data, and have additionally been replicated using precise spatial contamination information contained in Demographic and Health Survey datasets for Bangladesh. We find that age at marriage for males reduces by 3.5 to 10.5 months and bride price also reduces by around 60 percent. JEL Classification: I12 J12 R11

Url: https://crawford.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/events/attachments/2018-06/chowdhury.pdf

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Authors: Chowdhury, Shyamal; Singh, Prachi

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure

Countries: United States