CAN'T BUY ME LOVE? A FIELD EXPERIMENT EXPLORING THE TRADE‐OFF BETWEEN INCOME AND CASTE‐STATUS IN AN INDIAN MATRIMONIAL MARKET

C-Tier
Journal: Economic Inquiry
Year: 2012
Volume: 50
Issue: 2
Pages: 534-550

Authors (3)

SUBHASISH DUGAR (not in RePEc) HAIMANTI BHATTACHARYA (not in RePEc) DAVID REILEY (Google, Inc.)

Score contribution per author:

0.335 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

A large body of literature depicts that status‐based discrimination is pervasive, but is silent on how economic incentive interacts with such discrimination. This study addresses this question by designing a field experiment in a reputable arranged marriage market that is prone to strong caste‐status‐based discrimination. We place newspaper advertisements of potential grooms by systematically varying their caste and income and focus on responses of higher‐caste females to lower‐caste males. The substantive finding is that despite the evidence of discrimination, discriminatory behavior of higher‐status females decreases with an increase in the advertised monthly income of lower‐status males. (JEL C93, J12, J15)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:ecinqu:v:50:y:2012:i:2:p:534-550
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-29