tailieunhanh - Learning your Child's Price

The authors combine novel data and methodology to shed light on the contribution to dowry of a composite characteristic that they refer to a child quality. Their findings can be summarized as follows: (1) Dowry values are not determined by household characteristics alone | WORKING P A P E R Learning your Child s Price Evidence from Data on Projected Dowry in Rural India A. V. CHARI AND ANNEMIE MAERTENS This product is part of the RAND Labor and Population working paper series. RAND working papers are intended to share researchers latest findings and to solicit informal peer review. They have been approved for circulation by RAND Labor and Population but have not been formally edited or peer reviewed. Unless otherwise indicated working papers can be quoted and cited without permission of the author provided the source is clearly referred to as a working paper. RAND s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. RAND is a registered trademark. WR-899 November 2011 This paper series made possible by the NIA funded RAND Center for the Study of Aging P30AG012815 and the NICHD funded RAND Population Research Center R24HD050906 . LABOR AND POPULATION Learning your Child s Price Evidence from Data on Projected Dowry in Rural India A. V. Chari RAND Annemie Maertens University of Pittsburgh 1 November 2011 Abstract We combine novel data and methodology to shed light on the contribution to dowry of a composite characteristic that we refer to a child quality. Our findings can be summarized as follows 1 Dowry values are not determined by household characteristics alone child quality is a very significant determinant of dowry 2 Quality is not a homogenous attribute for boys and girls we distinguish between high-level quality which matters for boys and low-level quality which matters for girls 3 High-level quality does not begin revealing itself until the child enters school whereas low-level quality starts becoming apparent at an earlier stage 4 An increase in quality in girls appears to increase their dowry values we argue that this is consistent with the idea that girls marry up and that quality has a horizontal component 5 For boys quality gets partially absorbed into educational attainments whereas