In this dissertation I present three papers, each as an individual chapter. The first two papers are in the field of development economics, while the third paper is in the field of education economics. The first two chapters document and study the disappearance of arranged marriages in Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. For this purpose, focusing on Indonesia, I construct and empirically test a model of marital choices that assumes that AM serve as a form of informal insurance for parents and children, whereas other forms of marriage do not. The third chapter designs, implements and evaluates a peer review program with the goal of determining whether trained peer feedback has a causal effect on the teaching performance of teaching assistants. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]