The Influence of Early Marriage on Monetary Poverty in Indonesia

Introduction: The aim of this study is to analyze the influence of early marriage on monetary poverty in Indonesia. Background Problems: Recent studies on early marriage show that the prevalence of early marriage in Indonesia reached 13.5 percent (Marshan et al., 2013) and that early marriage is exacerbated poverty which causes an increase of economic burden of the family (Djamilah, 2014), an increase of family harassment, divorce and not continuing individuals to schools (Putranti, 2012), and an increase of chances of poverty by 31 percent in the United States (Dahl, 2010). However, most studies are qualitative studies. Research Methods: The study uses recent data on Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS), the year 2014; with a sample of women who are marriages at age less than 18 years old for their first marriage as a proxy for early marriage; and monthly per capita income as a measurement of monetary poverty. This study employs a binary method for binary dependent variable which is whether the woman experiences monetary poverty. Findings/Results: The result shows that the prevalence of early marriage in Indonesia is reached 16.36 percent. Among those, 46.61 percent of the women who were married in their teens (before 18 years old) do not pass the nine-years basic education, and 52.35 percent of the early marriage woman does not have a health insurance card. The results of binary probit model show that early marriage does not affect the possibility of a woman experiencing monetary poverty. It means that early marriage does not influence the monthly per capita income of the women. Conclusion: The results of this study may imply that other measurements of poverty may be needed to be concerned. Therefore, the policies that are related to reducing early marriage should consider the impact of other factors on poverty.