From RFE/RL, with thanks to Ali Dashti:
Prague, 2 February 2005 (RFE/RL) — A husband with several wives and many children usually spends his money on quantity rather than quality, and therefore his children receive a mediocre or even poor education. This, in turn, lowers the education level of those societies in which polygamy is a common practice.
That is the conclusion of three Hebrew University professors in a report called “The Mystery of Monogamy.” It is based on a study conducted in the African country of Ivory Coast.
Eric Gould is a Hebrew University economics professor and one of the authors of the report. He tells RFE/RL that the purpose of the research was to look at the correlation between polygamy and economic development, since all of the societies in which polygamy is practiced are developing countries, while monogamy is the common practice in all developed countries.
Gould says the overall impact of polygamy on developing economies is negative. “In general, wealthy men like lots of children and lots of wives. But the difference between developed countries and nondeveloped countries is how people get wealthy and a value of education in a society,” he says. “So, in a nondeveloped country, men don’t get wealthy through their education and through their human capital. They basically get land or another kind of wealth. They know their children are not going to get wealthy through education, and so forth. So, they prefer lots of children with a low level of human capital.”