Editing Polygyny (section)

===Economic burden===
Scholars have argued that in farming systems where men do most of the agriculture work, a second wife can be an economic burden rather than an asset. In order to feed an additional wife, the husband must either work harder himself or he must hire laborers to do part of the work. In such regions, polygyny is either non-existent or is a luxury which only a small minority of rich farmers can indulge.{{sfn|Boserup|1970|pp=47–48}}

A report by the secretariat of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) quotes: "one of the strongest appeals of polygyny to men in Africa is precisely its economic aspect, for a man with several wives commands more land, can produce more food for his household and can achieve a high status due to the wealth which he can command".{{sfn|Boserup|1970|p=37}} In Boserup's 1970 discussion of earlier analyses of polygynous systems, for example that of Little's work of the 1930s,{{sfn|Little|1967}} that through the hard work, economic, and agricultural assistance of a man's several wives, a husband could afford to pay the bride price of a new wife and further his access to more land, meanwhile increasing his progeny.{{sfn|Boserup|1970|pp=37–40}} According to Boserup, writing in 1970, tribal rules of land tenure were still in force over much of the continent of Africa.{{sfn|Boserup|1970|p=37}} In this system, members of a tribe which commands a certain territory had a native right to take land under cultivation for food production, and in many cases, also for the cultivation of cash crops. Under this tenure system, an additional wife is an economic asset that helps the family to expand its production.

The economist [[Michèle Tertilt]] concludes that countries that practice polygyny are less economically stable than those that practice [[monogamy]]. Polygynous countries usually have a higher fertility rate, fewer savings reserves, and a lower GDP. A 2014 study estimates that fertility would decrease by 40 percent, savings would increase by 70 percent and GDP would increase by 170 percent if polygyny were banned.<ref name="dalton">{{Cite journal|last1=Dalton|first1=John|last2=Leung|first2=Tin Cheuk|date=2014|title=Why Is Polygyny More Prevalent in Western Africa? An African Slave Trade Perspective|url=http://users.wfu.edu/daltonjt/PolygynySlaveTrade.pdf|journal=Economic Development and Cultural Change|volume=62|issue=4|pages=601–604|via=Business Source Complete|doi=10.1086/676531|ssrn=1848183|s2cid=224797897}}</ref> Monogamous societies present a surge in economic productivity because monogamous men are able to save and invest their resources due to having fewer children. Polygynous societies have a higher concentration of men investing into methods of mating with women, whereas monogamous men invest more into their families and other related institutions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Porter|first=Jonathan|date=2015|title=L'amour for four: polygyny, polyamory, and the state's compelling economic interest in normative monogamy|url=http://law.emory.edu/elj/_documents/volumes/64/6/porter.pdf|journal=Emory Law Journal|volume=64|page=2121}}</ref>

Despite the expenses of polygynous marriages, a 1995 study suggests that men benefit from marrying multiple wives through the economic and social insurance that [[kinship]] ties produce. With a large network of in-laws, these men have the ties they need to compensate for other economic shortages.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jacoby|first=Hanan|date=1995|title=The Economics of Polygyny in Sub-Saharan Africa: Female Productivity and the Demand for Wives in Côte d'Ivoire|journal=Journal of Political Economy|volume=103|issue=5|pages=942–943|doi=10.1086/262009|s2cid=153376774}}</ref>