Age at Marriage and Women's Labour Market Outcomes in India

Authors

Gaurav Dhamija, Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi Centre)
Punarjit Roychowdhury, Indian Institute of Management Indore

Article Type

Research Article

Publication Title

Journal of International Development

Abstract

We examine the relationship between women's age at marriage and their labour market outcomes using nationally representative household data from India. Employing an instrumental variable-based empirical strategy, we find that a delay in women's age at marriage has no significant causal effect on their labour market outcomes. This is despite marriage delay being associated with higher education, lower fertility and (possibly) higher dowry for Indian women. We argue that this might be because older brides, as compared with younger brides, face more backlash from their partners. This backlash effect could be offsetting the positive labour market effects of marriage delay. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

First Page

342

Last Page

374

DOI

10.1002/jid.3456

Publication Date

4-1-2020

Comments

Open Access, Green

Recommended Citation

Dhamija, Gaurav and Roychowdhury, Punarjit, "Age at Marriage and Women's Labour Market Outcomes in India" (2020). Journal Articles. 335.
https://digitalcommons.isical.ac.in/journal-articles/335