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Why Dowries?

Maristella Botticini
Bocconi University - Inocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research

Aloysius Siow
University of Toronto - Department of Economics; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

January 2003

Abstract:
When married daughters leave their parental home and their married brothers do not, altruistic parents provide dowries for daughters and bequests for sons in order to mitigate a free riding problem between their married sons and daughters. The theory has predictions on the form of the dowry contract, the exclusion of daughters from bequests, and the decline of dowries in previously dowry giving societies. These predictions are consistent with historical evidence from ancient Near Eastern civilizations, ancient Greece, Roman Empire, thirteenth-century Byzantium, western Europe from 500 to 1500 CE, the Jews from antiquity to the Middle Ages, Arab Islam from 650 CE to modern times, China, Japan, medieval and Renaissance Tuscany, early-modern England, modern Brazil, North America, and contemporary India.

Keywords: dowry, brideprice, bequest, free riding, marriage, intergenerational transfers, Tuscany, comparative

JEL Classifications: J1, NO, N3

Working Paper Series

Date posted: April 03, 2003 ; Last revised: April 07, 2003

Suggested Citation

Botticini, Maristella and Siow, Aloysius, Why Dowries? (January 2003). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=380129 or doi:10.2139/ssrn.380129

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Contact Information

Maristella Botticini (Contact Author) Bocconi University - Inocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research ( email ) Via Salasco 5 Milano 20136 Italy
Aloysius Siow University of Toronto - Department of Economics ( email ) 150 St. George Street Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G7 Canada 416-978-4139 (Phone) 416-978-6713 (Fax)
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) P.O. Box 7240 D-53072 Bonn Germany