The economics of female genital cutting

Tatyana Chesnokova; Rhema Vaithianathan

doi:10.2202/1935-1682.2565

The economics of female genital cutting

Tatyana Chesnokova^*, Rhema Vaithianathan

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The practice of female genital cutting (FGC) has a long history in Africa and it is thought that over 130 million females alive today have undergone the practice. In this paper, we model FGC as a pre-marital investment. We show how the rat-race nature of the marriage market may result in inefficiently high equilibrium levels of FGC. We argue that in this case, regulation results in a (potential) Pareto improvement and that even weak regulation can be effective in eradicating FGC.

Original language	English
Article number	64
Journal	B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1682.2565
Publication status	Published - 2010
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Africa
female genital cutting
marriage
pre-marital investment

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics and Econometrics
Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)

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10.2202/1935-1682.2565

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The economics of female genital cutting

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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