Does Rising Inequality Delay Marriage? Evidence from India

Abstract

Top incomes in India have been rising sharply since the 1980s. In this chapter, we show that this phenomenon may have resulted in delays to female marriage. Our analysis takes advantage of cross-sectional variation in earnings distribution across narrowly defined marriage markets. We find that female marriage rates decline in response to increases in top male incomes. We also find marked effects on women’s educational attainment (in terms of years of schooling, as well as high school and college completion rates). We examine a number of hypotheses, and conclude that the pattern of results suggests a mechanism in which increases in top male incomes prolong the duration of marital search on the part of women.