Published on April 17, 2025–Updated on April 17, 2025
Webinar: The Economics of Migration. Across-District Marriage Migration in India.
Sophie Brochet
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Barcelona School of Economics
Coauthors: Jacek Barszczewski and Prasanthi Ramakrishnan.
Abstract
Approximately two-thirds of Indian women migrate for marriage, with roughly one-fifth relocating across district boundaries. Given the skewed regional disparities in India’s sex ratio, we examine the influence of this on women’s marriage migration patterns and female intra-household bargaining power. We document new empirical facts associated with sex ratio, probability of marriage migration, and household characteristics. We find that women are more likely to migrate for marriage to a region with a more skewed sex ratio and to a rural household, where the household head has at least primary education. We then build a collective household marriage market model to understand the impact of marriage migration on bargaining power of women. Preliminary results indicate that an increase in the probability of marriage migration results in lower bargaining power among women.
