Chiplunkar, Gaurav; Weaver, Jeffrey - 2023
Dowry payments are common in many marriage markets. This paper uses data on over 74,000 marriages in rural India over … the last century to explain why the institution of dowry emerges and how it evolves over time. We find that the proportion … of Indian marriages including dowry payments doubled between 1930 and 1975, and the average real value of payments …