"The economic case for polygamy"

Posted by Tanos on Mon 20 Feb 06, 1:13 AM

An "economic" analysis of polygyny has appeared on Slate, written by Tim Harford for the FT earlier this month. He makes the point that polygyny is really a way for wives to get "high status" husbands (ie husbands with access to something that people value - wealth, fame, skill etc), even if it means sharing them: "wives decided they'd prefer one-quarter of a billionaire." This is about the economics of status and desirability, not really about money itself: so it applies to being a film star, or a good father, or a good dom too.

Implicitly, he's assuming only consensual marriage rather than enforced marriages or slavery, but the scenarios he describe have some overlaps with the Dominance Economy that I've written about in the past.

Furthermore, it links in with Walter Scheidel's Ancient Empires and Sexual Exploitation paper, which describes how the more egalitarian a society is, the less likely polygyny is - for example, because low status men in democratic societies are powerful enough to prevent high status men from building up harems etc.

Edited Tue 21 Feb 06, 10:51 AM by Tanos