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2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

An empirical analysis of impacts of women's old age concern on investment in kinship networks in rural Tanzania

Research Project

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Project/Area Number 25780180
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Research Field Economic policy
Research InstitutionInstitute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization

Principal Investigator

KUDO YUYA  独立行政法人日本貿易振興機構アジア経済研究所, 開発研究センターミクロ経済分析研究グループ, 研究員 (30623706)

Project Period (FY) 2013-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Keywords社会制度 / 女性のエンパワメント / HIV/AIDS / 社会保障 / 寡婦
Outline of Final Research Achievements

Levirate marriage, whereby a widow is inherited by male relatives of her deceased husband, has anecdotally been viewed as an informal safety net for widows. This study investigates why this widespread practice in sub-Saharan Africa has recently been disappearing. As a developed game-theoretic analysis reveals, female empowerment renders this widespread practice redundant because it increases widows' reservation utility. HIV/AIDS also discourages a husband's clan from inheriting a widow who loses her husband to HIV/AIDS, reducing her remarriage prospects and thus, reservation utility because she is likely to be HIV positive. By exploiting long-term household panel data drawn from rural Tanzania and testing multiple theoretical predictions, this study finds that HIV/AIDS is primarily responsible for the deterioration of levirate marriage. Young widows in Africa may need some form of social protection against the influence of HIV/AIDS.

Free Research Field

開発経済学 応用ミクロ計量経済学

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Published: 2019-03-29  

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