The Price of Gold: Dowry and Death in India

Sonia Bhalotra, Abhishek Chakravarty and Selim Gulesci ()

No 9679, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Dowry is often adduced as an explanation of son preference in India, but there is little evidence that dowry motivates son-preferring behaviours. On the premise that gold is an integral part of dowry, we use variation in gold prices to investigate this. First, we exploit a sharp unexpected rise in the price of gold in 1980 and, using a difference-in-discontinuities design, find that the gold price hike is mirrored in an increase in girl relative to boy mortality in the neonatal and infant period. We also find that surviving girls are shorter. Second, using monthly time series data for 35 years, we again find that cyclical variation in gold prices is reflected in excess girl mortality and, since the introduction of prenatal sex determination technology, in the sex ratio at birth. This constitutes the first evidence that dowry costs lead parents to eliminate foetal and newborn girls, and on a scale much larger than "dowry deaths" amongst married women which have been the subject of public attention.

Keywords: missing girls; commodity price shocks; dowry; son preference; infant mortality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 J16 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 76 pages
Date: 2016-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Published - published in: Journal of Development Economics, 2020, 143, 102413

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Related works:
Journal Article: The price of gold: Dowry and death in India (2020)
Working Paper: The Price of Gold: Dowry and Death in India (2018)
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