We study how aggregate economic conditions affect the timing of marriage, and particularly
child marriage, in Sub‐Saharan Africa and in India. In both regions, substantial monetary or …

We provide evidence that dowry costs motivate son-preferring behaviors in India. Since gold
is an integral part of dowry, we study parental responses to shocks in the world gold price …

This conceptual paper presents a framework that integrates 11 forms of voluntary payments
as seemingly disparate as bribes and bequests, and gifts and gratuities to show that …

Rising numbers of young unmarried men in India reflect a marriage squeeze that goes
beyond the shortage of brides created by sex-selective abortion. We describe a decline in …

We develop a non-cooperative bargaining model with incomplete information linking dowry
payments, domestic violence, resource allocation between a husband and a wife, and …

The ancient custom of dowry, ie, bride-to-groom marriage payments, remains ubiquitous in
many contemporary societies. Using data from 1986–2007, this paper examines whether …

Numerous studies have documented a relationship between income and wealth of a woman
and domestic violence. One such factor that could potentially impact domestic violence is the …

I combine data from wealth surveys (NSS-AIDIS) and millionaire lists to produce wealth
inequality series for India over the 1961-2012 period. I find a strong rise in wealth …

We study the relationship between dowries–wealth transfers from the bride's family to the
groom or his family at the time of marriage–and individual-level poverty in rural India. Based …

This handbook chapter focuses on important interactions between the family and culture. We
discuss the wide range of global variation in family institutions, variation which is in part …