Although there are numerous studies of the dowry phenomenon in India, research pertaining to the custom in the rest of South Asia is sparse. The aim of this paper is to study dowry payments in Pakistan. Several interpretations for dowry are distinguished using a simple theoretical framework and the predictions of this model are tested using recent data from Pakistan. The investigation concludes that despite religious and cultural differences, the phenomenon of dowry in Pakistan appears to occur for reasons which are similar to those in India. That is, in rural areas it seems to be the more traditional pre-mortem inheritance, whereas in urban areas the payment has transformed into a groomprice.
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Paper provided by Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research in its series Discussion Paper with number
82.
Find related papers by JEL classification: J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Maristella Botticini & Aloysius Siow, 2003.
"Why Dowries?,"
American Economic Review,
American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1385-1398, September.
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