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Whose education matters? An analysis of inter caste marriages in India

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  • Ray, Tridip
  • Roy Chaudhuri, Arka
  • Sahai, Komal

Abstract

Endogamy or intra-caste marriage is one of the most resilient of all the caste based practices in India. Even in 2011, the rate of inter caste marriages in India was as low as 5.82%. In this paper we explore whether education has any relationship with this age-old practice of marrying within one’s own caste. Using a nationally representative data set, the Indian Human Development Survey, we find that, in sharp contrast with the findings in the existing literature on out-marriages in the Western countries, education levels of the spouses themselves do not have any association with the likelihood of their own marriage being an inter caste one. However, couples with a more educated mother of the husband have a significantly higher probability of being in an inter caste marriage. One standard deviation increase in the years of education of the husband’s mother is associated with a 10.16% increase in the probability of inter caste marriage over the sample mean. Our analysis highlights the importance of recognizing the institution of arranged marriages in any analysis of Indian marriage markets.

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  • Ray, Tridip & Roy Chaudhuri, Arka & Sahai, Komal, 2020. "Whose education matters? An analysis of inter caste marriages in India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 619-633.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:176:y:2020:i:c:p:619-633
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.02.011
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    3. Farzana Afridi & Abhishek Arora & Diva Dhar & Kanika Mahajan, 2023. "Women’s Work, Social Norms and the Marriage Market∗," Working Papers 94, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    4. Nitin Kumar Bharti, 2018. "Wealth Inequality, Class and Caste in India, 1961-2012," World Inequality Lab Working Papers hal-02878149, HAL.
    5. Nitin Kumar Bharti, 2018. "Wealth Inequality, Class and Caste in India, 1961-2012," Working Papers hal-02878149, HAL.
    6. Afridi, Farzana & Arora, Abhishek & Dhar, Diva & Mahajan, Kanika, 2023. "Women's Work, Social Norms and the Marriage Market," IZA Discussion Papers 15948, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay & Elliott Green, 2021. "Explaining inter‐ethnic marriage in Sub‐Saharan Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 627-643, May.
    8. Dewan, Prerna & Ray, Tridip & Roy Chaudhuri, Arka & Tater, Kirti, 2024. "Gender peer effects in high schools: Evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 470-494.
    9. Rahul Kumar & Bipasha Maity, 2020. "Menstrual Restrictions and Women's Health in Nepal," Working Papers 45, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    10. Mayurakshi Chaudhuri & Saurav Karmakar & Sakshi Shukla, 2024. "Intersectionalities and im/mobilities in family and marriage: a comparative study of Germany and India," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-19, December.
    11. Antonio Di Paolo & Khalifany-Ash Shidiqi, 2024. "“Education and Ethnic Intermarriage: Evidence from Higher Education Expansion in Indonesia”," AQR Working Papers 202403, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised May 2024.
    12. Abhilasha Srivastava & John Willoughby, 2023. "Capital, Caste, and Patriarchy: Theory of Marriage Formation in India," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 55(1), pages 47-69, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inter caste marriages; Education; Arranged marriage institution; Caste; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • 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
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General

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