cover image: Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India

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Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India

26 Oct 2020

The ancient custom of dowry, that is, bride-to-groom marriage payments, remains ubiquitous in many contemporary societies. This paper examines whether dowry impacted household decision making and resource allocation in 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 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.
human rights trade public finance household income household survey old age census data consumer price index development policy joint family family size household size industry infant mortality life insurance nuclear family south asia standard of living durable goods religious group commercial bank private bank poverty reduction household expenditure labor supply knowledge gap gender and development saving behavior saving rate female labor force participation formal saving household saving stock market international economics and trade labor markets live birth birth order sex ratio wealth inequality open access time allocation economic prosperity large families literature review survey data mutual fund conceptual framework standard error missing data consumption smoothing empirical research preventive health care explanatory variable sample mean weighted average real value measurement error public facilities scatter plot development research group health care services industry social protections and labor household level land ownership primarily due asset and liability 0 hypothesis robustness check summary statistic international trade and trade rules average household greater access years of schooling recent years in family learning and innovation credit extremely poor household exogenous shock gender neutral several years self-help group collected data household head below the poverty line female head number of girls increased income department of economics household use household data empirical evidence study period good information binding constraint previous work per capita basis small sample household consumption expenditure sample household low saving nationally representative survey total consumption expenditure demographic information incomplete data negative income shock low consumption causal impact survey questions low education panel data set international crops research girl child precious metal raw data sample period poverty does insurance market birth history household behavior limited access to bank static expectation form of saving behavioral biases female inheritance male relative annual saving savings portfolio reasonable assumption fertility behavior rational expectation permanent income model institution of marriage minimum age at marriage random walk discrimination against girl stopping rules child death sex-selective abortion price of gold families due cash saving income constraint marriage market marriage payments indian context data on marriage number of daughters demographic variables adaptive expectation child's age saving motive gold price rural south ancient custom high fertility market investment cultural institution chit fund changes in fertility linear prediction survey household

Authors

Lnu,Anukriti,Kwon,Sungoh,Prakash,Nishith

Disclosure Status
Disclosed
Doc Name
Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India
Document Date
2020-10-26
Originating Unit
DECRG: Human Development (DECHD)
Published in
United States of America
Series Name
Policy Research working paper;no. WPS 9453
Total Volume(s)
1
Unit Owning
Off of Sr VP Dev Econ/Chief Econ (DECVP)
Version Type
Final
Volume No
1

Files

Saving-for-Dowry-Evidence-from-Rural-India.pdf

Saving-for-Dowry-Evidence-from-Rural-India.txt

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