Abstract (EN)

In a polygamous society, all monogamous women are virtually at risk of polygamy. However,both the anthropological and economic literature are silent on the potential impact of therisk of polygamy on economic decisions of monogamous wives. We explore this issue forSenegal using individual panel data. We rst estimate a Cox model for the probability oftransition to polygamy. Second, we estimate the impact of the predicted risk of polygamyon monogamous wives' savings. We nd a positive impact of the risk of polygamy on femalesavings entrusted to formal or informal institutions, consistent with self-insurance strategies.