Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India

The ancient custom of dowry, i.e., bride-to-groom marriage payments, remains ubiquitous in many contemporary societies. Using data from 1986–2007, this paper examines whether dowry impacts intertemporal resource allocation and other household decisions in rural India. Utilizing variation in firstbor...

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Main Authors:	Anukriti, S., Kwon, Sungoh, Prakash, Nishith
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Elsevier 2022
Subjects:	DOWRY MARRIAGE PAYMENT INDIA SAVING LABOR SUPPLY
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37133

id	okr-10986-37133
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-371332022-03-16T05:10:42Z Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India Anukriti, S. Kwon, Sungoh Prakash, Nishith DOWRY MARRIAGE PAYMENT INDIA SAVING LABOR SUPPLY The ancient custom of dowry, i.e., bride-to-groom marriage payments, remains ubiquitous in many contemporary societies. Using data from 1986–2007, this paper examines whether dowry impacts intertemporal resource allocation and other household decisions in rural India. Utilizing variation in firstborn gender and dowry amounts across marriage markets, we find that the prospect of higher dowry payments at the time of a daughter’s marriage leads parents to save more in advance. The higher savings are primarily financed through increased paternal labor supply. This implies that people are farsighted; they work and save more today with payoff in the distant future. 2022-03-15T17:31:29Z 2022-03-15T17:31:29Z 2022-01 Journal Article Journal of Development Economics http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37133 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Elsevier Journal Article India
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	DOWRY MARRIAGE PAYMENT INDIA SAVING LABOR SUPPLY
spellingShingle	DOWRY MARRIAGE PAYMENT INDIA SAVING LABOR SUPPLY Anukriti, S. Kwon, Sungoh Prakash, Nishith Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India
geographic_facet	India
description	The ancient custom of dowry, i.e., bride-to-groom marriage payments, remains ubiquitous in many contemporary societies. Using data from 1986–2007, this paper examines whether dowry impacts intertemporal resource allocation and other household decisions in rural India. Utilizing variation in firstborn gender and dowry amounts across marriage markets, we find that the prospect of higher dowry payments at the time of a daughter’s marriage leads parents to save more in advance. The higher savings are primarily financed through increased paternal labor supply. This implies that people are farsighted; they work and save more today with payoff in the distant future.
format	Journal Article
author	Anukriti, S. Kwon, Sungoh Prakash, Nishith
author_facet	Anukriti, S. Kwon, Sungoh Prakash, Nishith
author_sort	Anukriti, S.
title	Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India
title_short	Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India
title_full	Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India
title_fullStr	Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India
title_full_unstemmed	Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India
title_sort	saving for dowry : evidence from rural india
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2022
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37133
_version_	1764486456530698240

Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India

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