Replication data for: Watta Satta: Bride Exchange and Women's Welfare in Rural Pakistan

Name: Replication data for: Watta Satta: Bride Exchange and Women's Welfare in Rural Pakistan
Published: 2010-09-01
License: This work is licensed under an Other license created by the data depositor. Please refer to the LICENSE file, which should be located alongside the project data and documentation.
Keywords: Economics of marriage

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Hanan G. Jacoby; Ghazala Mansuri

Version: View help for Version V1

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Project Citation:

Jacoby, Hanan G., and Mansuri, Ghazala. Replication data for: Watta Satta: Bride Exchange and Women’s Welfare in Rural Pakistan. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2010. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-11. https://doi.org/10.3886/E112372V1

Project Description

Summary: Can marriage institutions limit marital inefficiency? We study the pervasive custom of watta satta in rural Pakistan, a bride exchange between families coupled with a mutual threat of retaliation. Watta satta can be seen as a mechanism for coordinating the actions of two sets of parents, each wishing to restrain their son-in-law. We find that marital discord, as measured by estrangement, domestic abuse, and wife's mental health, is indeed significantly lower in watta satta versus "conventional" marriage, but only after accounting for selection bias. These benefits cannot be explained by endogamy, a marriage pattern associated with watta satta. (JEL J12, J16, O15, O18, Z13)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Economics of marriage

JEL Classification:
      J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
      J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
      O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
      O18 Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
      Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

Geographic Coverage: Pakistan

Data Type(s): survey data

Methodology

Data Source: Pakistan Rural Household Survey

Unit(s) of Observation: Individuals, Households

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-10-11]

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