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Daughters, dowries, deliveries: The effect of marital payments on fertility choices in India

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  • Alfano, Marco

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of the differential pecuniary costs of sons and daughters on fertility decisions. The focus is on dowries in India, which increase the economic returns to sons and decrease the returns to daughters. The paper exploits an exogenous shift in the cost of girls relative to boys arising from a revision in anti-dowry law, which is shown to have decreased dowry transfers markedly. The reform is found to have attenuated the widely documented positive association between daughters and their parents' fertility. The effect is particularly pronounced for more autonomous women and for individuals living in areas characterised by strong preferences for sons.

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  • Alfano, Marco, 2017. "Daughters, dowries, deliveries: The effect of marital payments on fertility choices in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 89-104.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:125:y:2017:i:c:p:89-104
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.11.004
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    Cited by:

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    3. Siwan Anderson & Chris Bidner, 2021. "An Institutional Perspective on the Economics of the Family," Discussion Papers dp21-14, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    4. Liu Qiang & Fernando Rios-Avila & Han Jiqin, 2020. "Is China's Low Fertility Rate Caused by the Population Control Policy?," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_943, Levy Economics Institute.
    5. Liu, Antung A. & Linn, Joshua & Qin, Ping & Yang, Jun, 2018. "Vehicle ownership restrictions and fertility in Beijing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 85-96.
    6. Menon, Seetha, 2020. "The effect of marital endowments on domestic violence in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    7. Anukriti, S. & Kwon, Sungoh & Prakash, Nishith, 2022. "Saving for dowry: Evidence from rural India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    8. Dhamija, Gaurav & Roychowdhury, Punarjit & Shankar, Binay, 2023. "Urbanization and Women Empowerment: Evidence from India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1323, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Calvi, Rossella & Keskar, Ajinkya, 2021. "'Til Dowry Do Us Part: Bargaining and Violence in Indian Families," CEPR Discussion Papers 15696, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Lorenz, Aaron & Lee, Yu Na, 2023. "On Rice and Weddings: Impacts of Food Assistance on Child Marriage in Indonesia," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335954, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Ebert, Cara & Vollmer, Sebastian, 2022. "Girls unwanted – The role of parents’ child-specific sex preference for children’s early mental development," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Dey, Subhasish & Ghosal, Tanisha, 2021. "Can Conditional Cash Transfer Defer Child Marriage? Impact of Kanyashree Prakalpa in West Bengal, India," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1333, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    13. Chiplunkar, Gaurav & Weaver, Jeffrey, 2023. "Marriage markets and the rise of dowry in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    14. Nandwani, Bharti & Roychowdhury, Punarjit, 2023. "British Colonialism and Women Empowerment in India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1275, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    15. Maertens, Annemie & Chari, A.V., 2020. "What’s Your Child Worth? An Analysis of Expected Dowry Payments in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dowry; Fertility; India; Son preferences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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