3. Estimation. In what follows, I assume that the supply of groom's traits with respect to their individual and household attributes is either exogenously fixed or at least unresponsiveness to changes in the bride household's taste. This assumption implies that the personal characteristics of the bride and her household do not influence the amount of dowry in comparison with the socio-economic characteristics of the groom and his household. This assumption seems restrictive, however, its importance in identifying the system of characteristic demand equations is described in the next section. The general view is that the real value of transfers from brides and their families is increasing in the groom's (and his parental household's) attributes and decreasing in the bride's (and her parental household's) attributes. But, dowry continues to be given in the marriage of highly educated, employed women (Saroja and Chandrika 1991; Paul 1986). In fact, today the highest amount of dowry is given in Kerala, a hundred percent literate state (Mullatti, 1995).

In theory, improved educational status of a woman should be a powerful solvent on dowry. However, Sharma (1993) argues that the bride's education is regarded only as a quality that enhances the status of her matrimonial home. That is, a woman's education is useful only to the extent that it places her in the social strata of men who may be potential matches. Thus, the personal characteristics of the bride have relatively little influence on the amount of dowry in comparison with the socio-economic characteristics of the groom and his household.

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