The Intergenerational Effects of Marital Transfers : Evidence from India

We study the intergenerational effects of marital transfers in India. We use exogenous variation in dowry amounts induced by stronger anti-dowry laws introduced in 1985. The new legal regime reduced dowries substantially and increased domestic violence against women. We find that children born to mothers exposed to the reform have a 0.24 standard deviation lower height-for-age z-score and about 0.41 fewer years of completed schooling. These results are plausibly driven by increased domestic violence against mothers and lower household wealth on account of reduced dowries