Household Savings and Marriage Payments: Evidence from Dowry in India

S Anukriti, Sungoh Kwon () and Nishith Prakash
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Sungoh Kwon: University of Connecticut

No 11464, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper examines how traditional marriage market institutions affect households' financial decisions. We study how bride-to-groom marriage payments, i.e., dowries, influence saving behavior in rural India. Exploiting variation in firstborn gender and heterogeneity in dowry amounts across marriage markets, we find that the prospect of paying higher dowry increases household savings, which are primarily financed through increased paternal labor supply. This is the first paper that highlights this alternative motive for savings in dowry-paying societies. However, we find no impacts of dowry expectations on son-preferring fertility behaviors and investments in girls.

Keywords: fertility; labor supply; India; marriage payments; dowry; household savings; sex ratio; child investments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 J1 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 72 pages
Date: 2018-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-gen and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published as 'Saving for dowry: Evidence from rural India' in: Journal of Development Economics, 2022, 154, 102750

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Related works:
Working Paper: Household Savings and Marriage Payments: Evidence from Dowry in India (2018)
Working Paper: Household Savings and Marriage Payments: Evidence from Dowry in India (2018)
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