摘要
本文研究了科西河洪水对印度比哈尔邦结婚时机的影响，比哈尔邦是世界上最贫穷的地区之一。使用差异设计，我们表明Kosi洪水使男性的结婚年龄降低了近一年，女性的结婚年龄降低了4个月以上。科西洪水还降低了已婚男子和妇女的中学毕业率，以及已婚妇女对经济资源的掌握。我们在婚姻市场的框架内解释这些结果，在没有完整的信贷市场的情况下，婚姻市场支付（嫁妆）有助于平稳消费，以应对不利的收入冲击。为了支持这一框架，我们发现Kosi洪水的影响在印度教徒（对他们来说，嫁妆是传统的婚姻支付规范）和无地者（他们更受信贷限制）中更为明显。
Abstract
Abstract This paper studies the impact of the flooding of the Kosi river on the timing of marriage in the Indian state of Bihar, one of the world’s poorest regions. Using a difference-in-differences design, we show that the Kosi floods reduced men’s age at marriage by almost a year and women’s age at marriage by over 4 months. The Kosi floods also decreased the secondary school completion rates of married men and women and married women’s command over economic resources. We interpret these results within a framework of marriage markets, where in the absence of complete credit markets, marriage market payments (dowry) help smooth consumption in response to adverse income shocks. In support of this framework, we find that the impact of the Kosi floods is more pronounced among Hindus (for whom dowry is the traditional marriage payment norm) and among the landless (who are more credit-constrained).
NETL
NSTL
Springer Nature