TY - BOOK ID - 137898806 TI - Saving for Dowry : Evidence from Rural India AU - Anukriti, S. AU - Kwon, Sungoh. AU - Prakash, Nishith. PY - 2020 PB - Washington, D.C. : The World Bank, DB - UniCat KW - Dowry KW - Female Labor Force KW - Gender KW - Gender and Development KW - Gender and Social Policy KW - Inequality KW - Labor Markets KW - Labor Supply KW - Marriage Age KW - Marriage Payment KW - Poverty KW - Poverty Reduction KW - Savings KW - Schooling KW - Social Protections and Labor UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:137898806 AB - The ancient custom of dowry, that is, bride-to-groom marriage payments, remains ubiquitous in many contemporary societies. This paper examines whether dowry impacted household decision making and resource allocation in rural India during 1986-2007. Utilizing variation in firstborn gender and dowry amounts across marriage markets, the paper finds that the prospect of higher dowry payments at the time of a daughter's marriage leads parents to save more in advance. The higher savings are primarily financed through increased paternal labor supply. This implies that people are farsighted; they work and save more today with payoff in the distant future. ER -