Between money and intimacy: Brideprice, marriage, and women’s position in contemporary China

Yifeng Wan
Additional contact information
Yifeng Wan: Johns Hopkins University

Demographic Research, 2024, vol. 50, issue 46, 1353-1386

Abstract: Background: Brideprice – a transfer from the groom’s to the bride’s family as part of the marriage process – has been a prominent element of marriage and kinship systems in many societies. While brideprice has declined as many countries modernize, the amount of brideprice has increased in China. Objective: This study examines how the meanings attributed to brideprice payments at the time of marriage shape brideprice repayments at the time of divorce, focusing on two frames of brideprice: an interfamily compensation for female labor and fertility, and an intergenerational endowment for the newlyweds. Methods: This study uses a unique data set containing over 100,000 court decisions involving brideprice disputes to estimate fractional regression models. Results: Brideprice repayment ratios are consistently higher for brideprice as compensation than for brideprice as endowment. Brideprice repayment ratios are higher in cases where the bride has undergone an abortion or has childbearing experience, resides in a rural area, or ends an engagement without registering the marriage. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that, unlike trends in many other societies, the traditional practice of brideprice in China has not declined. Instead, both the amounts involved in brideprice payments and the ratios of brideprice repayments upon dissolution have seen an increase. The intersection of brideprice type and rural/urban residence substantially shapes the repayment of brideprice upon a relationship’s dissolution, whether through breakup or divorce. Contribution: This study presents new data on brideprice payments and repayments, demonstrating that the two types of brideprice parallel in contemporary China. It also contributes to our understanding of how various factors influence the outcomes of brideprice return in court proceedings.

Keywords: divorce; gender inequalities; marriage; China; family; brideprice; family law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol50/46/50-46.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:demres:v:50:y:2024:i:46

DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2024.50.46

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Demographic Research from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Editorial Office ().