The Economics of Dowry Payments in Pakistan ¤
نویسنده
چکیده
Although there are numerous studies of the dowry phenomenon in India, research pertaining to the custom in the rest of South Asia is sparse. The aim of this paper is to study dowry payments in Pakistan. Several interpretations for dowry are distinguished using a simple theoretical framework and the predictions of this model are tested using recent data from Pakistan. The investigation concludes that despite religious and cultural di®erences, the phenomenon of dowry in Pakistan appears to occur for reasons which are similar to those in India. That is, in rural areas it seems to be the more traditional pre-mortem inheritance, whereas in urban areas the payment has transformed into a groomprice. JEL Classi ̄cation Codes: J12, J16, D10
منابع مشابه
The Economics of Dowry and Brideprice
P ayments between families at the time of marriage existed during the history of most developed countries and are currently pervasive in many areas of the developing world. These payments can be substantial enough to affect the welfare of women and a society’s distribution of wealth. Recent estimates document transfers per marriage amounting to six times the annual household income in South Asi...
متن کاملWhy the marriage squeeze cannot cause dowry inflation
It has been argued that rising dowry payments are caused by population growth. According to that explanation, termed the `marriage squeeze', a population increase leads to an excess supply of brides since men marry younger women. As a result, dowry payments rise in order to clear the marriage market. The explanation is essentially static; unmarried brides do not re-enter the marriage market. Th...
متن کاملWhy Dowry Payments Declined with Modernisation in Europe but Are Rising in India
In contrast to most dowry oriented societies where payments have declined with modernisation, those in India have undergone signi ̄cant in°ation over the last ̄ve decades. This paper explains the di®erence between these two experiences by focusing on the role played by caste. The theoretical model contrasts caste and non-caste based societies: in the former, there exists an inherited component t...
متن کاملInvestigating the Relationship between Misery Index and Patients' Out-of-pocket Payments in Iran's Health System
Background: One of the criteria for measuring the performance of governments and their survival is the degree of success in reducing and stabilizing the misery index. The misery index is obtained from the sum of inflation and unemployment. Inflation and unemployment are the most important factors affecting family's income. If the misery index is high, families will have less money to buy their ...
متن کاملOut-of-pocket and informal payments in Iran\'s health care system: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Background: Out-of-pocket and informal payments are considered as 2 most important topics for equity in health care financing. Therfore, this study was conducted to systematically review and meta-analyze the status of these payments in Iran's health care system. Methods: Required data were collected through searching the following key terms: "Unofficial", "Informal ...
متن کامل