On the Economics of Marriage and Household Decisions in Low-Income Countries.
These lectures celebrate the success of our recent professors, thank them for their contributions to the University and academia as a whole, and share some of the important and ground-breaking research they have been responsible for over the last few years.
Professor Zaki Wahhaj took us through the influences on his academic life and work to celebrate his recent promotion, beginning at Goldman Sachs via Yale, the Bodleian Library and Unicef, to become a ground breaking development economist.
‘In many parts of the world, economic agency is intimately tied with marriage decisions: whether, when and who one marries. They affect a range of socio-economic outcomes including education, fertility, migration, and employment. Yet marriage decisions are often dictated by social expectations and norms, to the extent that policies that do not take them into account can have unintended consequences. The lecture will highlight how incorporating understanding of marriage-related norms from related disciplines can enrich economic models and yield new insights about the potential impacts of a range of policies.’
For anyone who missed it, have a look at this film about one Wahhaj’s research projects discussed in the lecture.