TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Anukriti, S
AU  - Kwon, Sungoh
AU  - Prakash, Nishith
        TI  - Household Savings and Marriage Payments: Evidence from Dowry in India
        PY  - 2018/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 11464
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp11464
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - fertility
KW  - labor supply
KW  - India
KW  - marriage payments
KW  - dowry
KW  - household savings
KW  - sex ratio
KW  - child investments
        ER  -