Comments on Aplia Econ Blog: News for Economics Students: Two Girls for Every Boy

One possible explanation for the incentive for wom...

2006-04-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

One possible explanation for the incentive for women to particpate in polygamy could lie in the idea that men on average are less amenable to being tied down in marriage and less interested in raising or supporting children. So a guy who likes kids and is willing to support multiple spouses is a better deal even if you have to share him with another woman than being married to a drunken, abusive lout who was the alternative.

I think you're right, but I was responding to Fran...

2006-03-28T16:56:00.000-08:00

I think you're right, but I was responding to Frank's initial article, so mine might not stand well alone.

I think one of the biggest signs that polygamy is both a worthwhile thing to understand, and a problem for society, is the preponderance of men with multiple wives over women with multiple husbands.

Though not an economist, I have two considerations...

2006-03-27T17:16:00.000-08:00

Though not an economist, I have two considerations to make:
1) have polygamy and its effects been taken into account in studies about violence in Islamic countries? Is polygamy widespread enough there to have considerable effect?
2) I do not quite understand why no one of the articles considers the co-existence of polyandry and polyginy. Is it even arguable to hypothesize on the legalization/practice of one but not the other in a country like the US? I do not believe so, and in my opinion this makes the second article, specially, somewhat more philosophical than economic/practical.

An alternative economic view is that polygamy is a...

2006-03-27T16:08:00.000-08:00

An alternative economic view is that polygamy is about changing the terms of a contract after it has been agreed upon. It is a hold-up problem if 1) one party of the a contract tries to gain by changing the contract in their favor and 2) hoping that the other party will go along with this because they will still receive some (albeit lower) benefits from the contract. In polygamy, the husband and later wives do this to earlier wives. See my post on this.