Marriage Payments and Wife's Welfare: All you need is love

Bride price is essential to marriage in West Africa, and its impact on wives' well-being in their marital life is debated. According to our data from Senegal, transfers to the family of the bride characterize approximately 85% of marriages. Furthermore, although this feature is largely ignored in the literature, those marriages are also characterized by the simulta- neous existence of other marriage payments, which ow in di_erent directions between the stakeholders. This paper studies the relationship between these multiple marriage payments and the well-being of the wife in her household. We use a unique survey that enquires separately about the di_erent types of marriage payments. We highlight the strength of the link between what is given to the bride herself and her welfare, as opposed to the looseness of the relation between this welfare and what is given to her family