Dowry and wife's welfare: a theoretical and empirical analysis.
Becker attributes the existence of marital transfers to inflexibility in the division of joint product within the marriage. If that were the only reason, we would not have observed the coexistence of dowries and bride-prices. This paper offers an alternative analysis. While Becker's interpretatio...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Political Economy Vol. 107; no. 4; pp. 786 - 809 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Chicago Press
August 1999
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=512864062&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 512864062 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00223808 JPE jtl: Journal of Political Economy issn: 00223808 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: August 1999 vid: 107 iid: 4 pid: 415 pub: University of Chicago Press artinfo: ui: 512864062 10.1086/250079 ppf: 786 ppct: 23 formats: tig: atl: Dowry and wife's welfare: a theoretical and empirical analysis. aug: au: Zhang, Junsen Chan, William su: Marriage & economics Dowry Bride price Resource allocation -- Mathematical models sug: subj: Marriage & economics Dowry Bride price Resource allocation -- Mathematical models keyword: Women -- Taiwan -- Economic conditions ab: Becker attributes the existence of marital transfers to inflexibility in the division of joint product within the marriage. If that were the only reason, we would not have observed the coexistence of dowries and bride-prices. This paper offers an alternative analysis. While Becker's interpretation is retained for bride-prices, a dowry is now represented as a premortem bequest by altruistic parents for a daughter. It not only increases the wealth of the new conjugal household but also enhances the bargaining power of the bride in the allocation of output within that household, thereby safeguarding her welfare. Using micro data from Taiwan, we found that a dowry improves the bride's welfare whereas a bride-price has no effect. These empirical results support the theoretical predictions of the model. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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