Working Paper: NBER ID: w13905
Authors: Raj Arunachalam; Trevon Logan
Abstract: This paper is the first systematic attempt to measure the existence and degree of dowry inflation in South Asia. The popular press and scholarly literature have assumed dowry inflation in South Asia for some time, and there are now a number of theoretical papers that have attempted to explain the rise of dowries in South Asia. Despite these advances, there has been no systematic study of dowry inflation. Using large-sample retrospective survey data from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal, we assess the empirical evidence for dowry infllation. We find no evidence that real dowry amounts have systematically increased over time in South Asia.
Keywords: Dowry Inflation; South Asia; Marriage Markets; Economic Analysis
JEL Codes: C1; D1; J1; O10
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| real dowry amounts (G59) | year of marriage (J12) |
| year of marriage (J12) | dowry inflation (J12) |
| real dowries (G59) | dowry devaluation (J12) |
| nominal dowries (J12) | real dowries (G59) |