The Economics of Dowry Payments in Pakistan

Although there are numerous studies of the dowry phenomenon in India, research pertaining to the custom in the rest of South Asia is sparse.The aim of this paper is to study dowry payments in Pakistan.Several interpretations for dowry are distinguished using a simple theoretical framework and the predictions of this model are tested using recent data from Pakistan.The investigation concludes that despite religious and cultural differences, the phenomenon of dowry in Pakistan appears to occur for reasons which are similar to those in India.That is, in rural areas it seems to be the more traditional pre-mortem inheritance, whereas in urban areas the payment has transformed into a groomprice.