Saving for dowry: Evidence from rural India

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Anukriti, S.; Kwon, Sungoh; Prakash, Nishith
• 署名单位: The World Bank; IZA Institute Labor Economics; University of Connecticut; University of Connecticut
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102750
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: dowry; Marriage payments; INDIA; savings; labor supply

摘要

The ancient custom of dowry, i.e., bride-to-groom marriage payments, remains ubiquitous in many contempo-rary 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.