Natural Shock and Marriage Markets: Evolution of Mehr and Dowry in Muslim Marriages

Shyamal Chowdhury (), Debdulal Mallick and Prabal Roy Chowdhury
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Shyamal Chowdhury: University of Sydney
Prabal Roy Chowdhury: Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi

Discussion Papers from Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi

Abstract: We examine how mehr, a conditional payment from husbands to wives in the event of divorce, and dowry, a transfer from bride families to grooms at the time of marriage, have evolved through natural shocks. We develop a model of marriage market in which dowry acts as a groom price, whereas mehr serves to deter inecient divorces. Our comparative statics results show that the value of mehr is increasing (decreasing) in shocks that raise (lower) income while the eect of such shocks on dowry is ambiguous; even if dowry increases (decreases), the magnitude will be smaller than the corresponding increase (decrease) in mehr. We then exploit several natural experiments in Bangladesh, that include the Green Revolution around the 1960s, the Independence War in 1971 and the famine of 1974, to explain uctuations in the value of mehr and dowry observed in Muslim marriages. Using two household survey datasets in Bangladesh, we nd support for our theoretical predictions. To rule out alternative explanations, in particular the eect of legal changes, we exploit another natural experiment from the Indian state of West Bengal that experienced the same natural shocks, but not any of the legal shocks aecting Bangladesh. These results demonstrate that natural shocks may inuence the evolution of social institutions

Keywords: Dowry; Mehr; Muslim Family Law; Natural Shocks; Bangladesh; West Bengal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 O13 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2017-02
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Related works:
Working Paper: Natural Shocks and Marriage Markets: Evolution of Mehr and Dowry in Muslim Marriages (2019)
Working Paper: Natural Shocks and Marriage Markets: Evolution of Mehr and Dowry in Muslim Marriages (2017)
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