The Bridal Income and Education Effects on the Dowry

Abstract: This thesis studies the relationship between the magnitude of the dowry and the bride’s education and income. Dowry is defined the gifts transferred along with the bride from the bride’s natal family to the groom’s household at the time of marriage. Gifts are traditionally also given from the groom household to the bride, the bride who will belong to the groom household after marriage. India has a long tradition of practicing dowry, and is therefore the host for this study. Dowry payments have come to be known as the number one reason for parents to rather want sons than daughters. The magnitude of the dowry is huge, this thesis confirm Rao’s (1993) results that the dowry sometimes amounts to six times the annual income of the bridal household, which has negative impact on the savings patterns of the household. Data were collected from interviews I conducted in 2013 with households located in a rural village in Karnataka, South India. All 96 weddings included were conducted within the last five years. OLS-regressions were conducted to discern whether the bride’s education and income are significant determinants on the magnitude of the dowry. Three different regressions were executed with the net dowry, the gifts from the bridal household and the groom household as dependent variables. Several explanatory variables, which capture the characteristics of the spouses and their households, were included. Based on the results from the regressions we conclude that the income of the bride has significant negative effect on the net dowry and gifts given by the bridal household, while her education is insignificant for all three equations. The results support Becker’s (1981) theory of marriage payments occurring to adjust for the inflexibilities in the division of household commodities.