Popular discourse portrays marriage as a source of innumerable public and private benefits, happiness, companionship … access, the exercise of which is an act of autonomy and free will. However, a closer look at marriage’s past reveals a more … complicated portrait. Marriage has been used - and importantly, continues to be used - as state-imposed sexual discipline. Until …

Child marriage remains common even where female schooling and employment opportunities have grown. We introduce a … signaling model in which bride type is imperfectly observed but preferred types have lower returns to delaying marriage. We show … that in this environment the market might pool on early marriage even when everyone would benefit from delay. In this …