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Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India

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  • S Anukriti;Lnu,Anukriti
  • Kwon,Sungoh
  • Prakash,Nishith

Abstract

The ancient custom of dowry, that is, bride-to-groom marriage payments, remains ubiquitous in manycontemporary societies. This paper examines whether dowry impacted household decision making and resource allocationin rural India during 1986-2007. Utilizing variation in firstborn gender and dowry amounts across marriage markets,the paper finds that the prospect of higher dowry payments at the time of a daughter~^!!^s marriage leads parents tosave more in advance. The higher savings are primarily financed through increased paternal labor supply. Thisimplies that people are farsighted; they work and save more today with payoff in the distant future.

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  • S Anukriti;Lnu,Anukriti & Kwon,Sungoh & Prakash,Nishith, 2020. "Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9453, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9453
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    Cited by:

    1. Siwan Anderson & Chris Bidner, 2021. "An Institutional Perspective on the Economics of the Family," Discussion Papers dp21-14, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    2. Bao, Yan Xi & Liao, Ting Xuan, 2021. "Capability Approach: Reconciling the Absolute Core and the Multidimensional Relative Poverty Measures," MPRA Paper 111333, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Chiplunkar, Gaurav & Weaver, Jeffrey, 2023. "Marriage markets and the rise of dowry in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    4. Lnu,Anukriti & Erten,Bilge & Mukherjee,Priya, 2022. "Women’s Political Representation and Intimate Partner Violence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10113, The World Bank.
    5. Somville, Vincent & Vandewalle, Lore, 2023. "Access to banking, savings and consumption smoothing in rural India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    6. Lucia Corno & Nicole Hildebrandt & Alessandra Voena, 2020. "Age of Marriage, Weather Shocks, and the Direction of Marriage Payments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(3), pages 879-915, May.
    7. 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

    Labor Markets; Gender and Development; Inequality; International Trade and Trade Rules; Health Care Services Industry;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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