The price of gold: Dowry and death in India

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bhalotra, Sonia; Chakravarty, Abhishek; Gulesci, Selim
• 署名单位: University of Essex; University of Essex; University of Manchester; Bocconi University; Bocconi University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.102413
• 发表日期: 2020
• 关键词: dowry; gold; son preference; Missing girls; Neonatal mortality; Commodity price shocks

摘要

We provide evidence that dowry costs motivate son-preferring behaviors in India. Since gold is an integral part of dowry, we study parental responses to shocks in the world gold price. Exploiting monthly variation in gold prices across 35 years we find that monthly changes in gold prices lead to an increase in girl relative to boy neonatal mortality and that surviving girls are shorter. After the introduction of prenatal sex determination technology, we find that gold price shocks during pregnancy increase female foeticide.