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This paper remains unpublished. I keep intending to get back to it and do some more work on it. But, given how long it has been sitting, I should probably just publish it.

Download the Paper (211 K, PDF file) - August 25, 1994 Tell a colleague about it. Printing Tips: Select 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog if you have trouble printing.

ABSTRACT:
About 80% of all societies recorded by anthropologists are polygynous (men have many wives). Even our own society is less monogamous than claimed. This paper attempts to explain such mysteries as why bride prices and dowries are not ``opposites'', why polygamous societies are usually characterized by positive bride prices and dowry is mainly confined to monogamous societies, why polyandry (women having multiple husbands) is rare, but not extinct, and why the more you have to pay for a wife the better you will treat her.

SUGGESTED CITATION:
Ted Bergstrom, "On the Economics of Polygyny" (August 25, 1994). Department of Economics, UCSB. Ted Bergstrom. Paper 1994A.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/ucsbecon/bergstrom/1994A