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

Shyamal Chowdhury, Debdulal Mallick and Prabal Roy Chowdhury ()

No 2019-12, Working Papers from University of Sydney, School of Economics

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 in Bangladesh through natural shocks. We develop a model of marriage market in which dowry acts as a groom price, whereas mehr serves to deter inefficient divorces. Our comparative statics results show that mehr and dowry are both increasing (decreasing) in shocks that raise (lower) income, and moreover, they change at the same rate. 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 fluctuations in the value of mehr and dowry observed in Muslim marriages. Using two household survey datasets, we find support for our theoretical predictions. To rule out alternative explanations, in particular the effect of legal changes, we use household survey data from the Indian state of West Bengal that experienced a similar increase in agricultural productivity but none of the legal changes affecting Bangladesh. These results demonstrate that natural shocks may influence the evolution of social institutions.

Keywords: Mehr; Dowry; Natural Shocks; Bangladesh; West Bengal; Muslim Family Law. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Natural Shock and Marriage Markets: Evolution of Mehr and Dowry in Muslim Marriages (2017)
Working Paper: Natural Shocks and Marriage Markets: Evolution of Mehr and Dowry in Muslim Marriages (2017)
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