Policy Impact

SDRI research informs dowry reform campaign in Bangladesh (September 2009).
The damage that dowry causes in South Asia is well recognised, and a large number of organisations dedicate efforts to reducing it. It is widely established and publicised that a large proportion of domestic violence is linked to dowry, most often violence against women linked to pressure to pay dowry. However it is less well recognised that dowry is also a cause of impoverishment. Some commentators argue that the practice of dowry is best modelled economically as either an advance inheritance payment (advance bequest) by parents to daughters, or some other form of other non-pernicious transfer of resources between families that enables the clearance of marriage markets. Modelling dowry in this way tends to miss the negative socioeconomic effects. Research by SDRI coordinator Peter Davis, showing that dowry is a major cause of impoverishment in Bangladesh, has brought the issue into the forefront of public debate over poverty in Bangladesh.

Read a recent news report.

Read a press release.

UNDP report on Post-Conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity (October 2008).
SDRI research fellow Graham K. Brown contributed research and writing to the UNDP Bureau of Conflict Prevention and Recovery report on Post-Conflict Economic Recovery.

Read the full report.

World Bank Poverty Assessment for Bangladesh: Creating Opportunities for Bridging the East-West Divide (October 2008).
SDRI coordinator and research fellow Peter Davis contributed a background paper for the flagship World Bank poverty assessment for Bangladesh.

Read the full background paper.

Read the World Bank report.