The effect of marital endowments on domestic violence in India

Seetha Menon

Journal of Development Economics, 2020, vol. 143, issue C

Abstract: Numerous studies have documented a relationship between income and wealth of a woman and domestic violence. One such factor that could potentially impact domestic violence is the gold endowment a woman receives at the time of marriage. India presents a unique setting in which to test this relationship as, despite being unlawful, both dowry practices and domestic violence continue to prevail. As actual marital endowments may endogenously affect spousal match quality, I use the deviation of the price of gold at the time of marriage from its long-term trend as a source of exogenous variation to proxy for initial marital endowment and examine its effect on domestic violence. Results show a positive and significant effect of an unusually high price of gold at the time of marriage on domestic violence.

Keywords: Domestic violence; Dowry; Intra-household bargaining (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J14 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:143:y:2020:i:c:s0304387818316225

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.102389

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