TY  - JOUR
AU  - Arunachalam,Raj
AU  - Logan,Trevon
TI  - Is There Dowry Inflation in South Asia?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13905
PY  - 2008
Y2  - March 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13905
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13905.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Raj Arunachalam
Department of Economics
University of Michigan
351D Lorch Hall
611 Tappan Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
E-Mail: arunacha@umich.edu

Trevon Logan
The Ohio State University
410 Arps Hall
1945 N. High Street
Columbus, OH 43210
Tel: 614-292-0762
Fax: 614-292-3906
E-Mail: logan.155@osu.edu
AB  - This paper is the first systematic attempt to measure the existence and degree of dowry inflation in South Asia. The popular press and scholarly literature have assumed dowry inflation in South Asia for some time, and there are now a number of theoretical papers that have attempted to explain the rise of dowries in South Asia. Despite these advances, there has been no systematic study of dowry inflation. Using large-sample retrospective survey data from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal, we assess the empirical evidence for dowry infllation. We find no evidence that real dowry amounts have systematically increased over time in South Asia.
ER  -