Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/259819 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 1107
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
In developing countries, one in four girls is married before turning 18, with adverse consequences for their own and their children's human capital. In this paper, we investigate whether laws can affect attitudes and behaviour towards child marriage - in a context in which the laws are not strictly enforced. We do so using a randomised video-based information intervention that aimed to accelerate knowledge transmission about a new child marriage law in Bangladesh that introduced harsher punishments for facilitating early marriage. Follow-up surveys documented an increase in early marriage among treated households if the father or family elders received the information. The findings allow us to distinguish between two competing theoretical channels underlying the effect of legal change and highlight the risk of backlash against laws that contradict traditional norms and practices.
Subjects: 
age of marriage
social norms
formal institutions
legal change
JEL: 
J12
J16
K36
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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