The test on the presence of full insurance that is commonly employed does not take intoaccount that households also rely on buffer stocks to shield their consumption from incomeshocks. In this paper a test is developed that deals with this omission. It is shown that in thepresence of partial...

In this paper we focus on the timing of marriages of women, whose marriages are associated with bride wealth payments, which are transfers from (the family of) the groom to the bride's family. Unmarried daughters could therefore be considered assets who, at times of need, can be cashed in. We...