Does Child Marriage Matter for Growth?

IMF Working Papers, February 7, 2020

Source details

The paper quantifies the relationship between child marriage and economic growth using a simultaneous equations model.
Eliminating child marriage would significantly improve economic growth: if child marriage were ended today, long-term annual per capita real GDP growth in emerging and developing countries would increase by 1.05 percentage points.
The analysis highlights strong interdependence between education and child marriage, with implications for policy prioritization in comprehensive strategies to end child marriage.

Eliminating child marriage today → long-term annual per capita real GDP growth in emerging and developing countries increases by 1.05 percentage points.
Education and child marriage are strongly interdependent (the analysis provides insight on policy prioritization given this relationship).

Education policies and the budgets that support them should place greater emphasis on reducing child marriage, reflecting the strong interdependent relationship between education and child marriage.
Comprehensive strategies to end child marriage should prioritize interventions that leverage the interaction between education, health, human capital, and labor force participation.

This paper is the first to quantify the child marriage–growth relationship using a simultaneous equations model.
Subject areas: Education, Government consumption, Health, Human capital, Labor force participation.
Keywords: child marriage, standard deviation, WP.

Source: IMF Working Papers — "Does Child Marriage Matter for Growth?"