TY - JOUR
T1 - Dowry Inflation
T2 - Perception or Reality?
AU - Lankes, Jane
AU - Shenk, Mary K.
AU - Towner, Mary C.
AU - Alam, Nurul
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Dr. Sarah Damaske, Dr. David Nolin, Dr. Susan Schaffnit, Dr. Robert Lynch, Dr. Saman Naz, and the Penn State Population Research Institute Family Working Group for their helpful comments and insights. This research was supported by funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to the Population Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University for Population Research Infrastructure (P2C HD041025) and Family Demography Training (T32 HD007514); the National Science Foundation (BCS-0924630 & BCS-1839269); and The Pennsylvania State University Demography Graduate Program.
Funding Information:
The authors thank Dr. Sarah Damaske, Dr. David Nolin, Dr. Susan Schaffnit, Dr. Robert Lynch, Dr. Saman Naz, and the Penn State Population Research Institute Family Working Group for their helpful comments and insights. This research was supported by funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to the Population Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University for Population Research Infrastructure (P2C HD041025) and Family Demography Training (T32 HD007514); the National Science Foundation (BCS-0924630 & BCS-1839269); and The Pennsylvania State University Demography Graduate Program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Research on South Asia has consistently documented increasing dowry amounts over the past several decades. Although recent studies have largely concluded this is due to an overall rise in prices, and therefore not a real increase per se, methodological limitations make this difficult to discern. In this paper, we assess: (1) if dowry amounts increased faster than the general inflation rate, and (2) how dowry amounts increased relative to income. Using data on rural Bangladesh from 1955 to 2010, we show trends in gross dowry, net dowry, and the ratio of dowry to income using multiple inflation adjustments. We find that only some aspects of dowries rose in certain periods, but the ratio of dowry to income steadily increased across time. We discuss implications of these results for understanding past contradictory findings and for gaining insight into the mechanisms by which widespread perceptions of dowry inflation may be maintained.
AB - Research on South Asia has consistently documented increasing dowry amounts over the past several decades. Although recent studies have largely concluded this is due to an overall rise in prices, and therefore not a real increase per se, methodological limitations make this difficult to discern. In this paper, we assess: (1) if dowry amounts increased faster than the general inflation rate, and (2) how dowry amounts increased relative to income. Using data on rural Bangladesh from 1955 to 2010, we show trends in gross dowry, net dowry, and the ratio of dowry to income using multiple inflation adjustments. We find that only some aspects of dowries rose in certain periods, but the ratio of dowry to income steadily increased across time. We discuss implications of these results for understanding past contradictory findings and for gaining insight into the mechanisms by which widespread perceptions of dowry inflation may be maintained.
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U2 - 10.1007/s11113-022-09705-7
DO - 10.1007/s11113-022-09705-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85126367492
SN - 0167-5923
VL - 41
SP - 1641
EP - 1672
JO - Population Research and Policy Review
JF - Population Research and Policy Review
IS - 4
ER -