The Economics of Polygamy

What is the optimal number of wives for a man at any one time? Our culture and laws suggest the answer is one. Putting aside any religious concerns, economic conditions in other places and times may suggest that one wife is not optimal.

Research by Eric Gould, Omer Moav and Avi Simhon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, indicate "four in 10 adult women of child-bearing age [in the Ivory Coast] share their husband with another wife." Though their research finds that rich men tend to have more wives than poor men, it apparently matters whether your income is due primarily to wages or due to ownership of land or corruption. Those whose income is primarily due to the latter have more wives than those whose income is primarily derived from wage labor. The study also indicates that well-educated men tend to focus on "quality" rather than quantity in seeking wives. However, a quality wife will come only at a higher price, hence low income earners may substitute quantity for quality in selecting wives. One policy implication stemming from their analysis is that governments of developing countries should invest in public education in order to increase the supply of quality women (and thereby reduce the demand for multiple wives).

What conditions might make polygamy an optimal social policy? One such scenario might be if a severe imbalance in the number of men vis-a-vis women devleops, say, due to some type of disaster (war, disease, etc.) affecting the number of men available. Are there any other economic arguments why multiple wives may be optimal? [Of course, the same arguments apply to women having multiple husbands.]

For another take on this, see Tyler Cowen's views here.