Watta satta : bride exchange and women ' s welfare in rural Pakistan, Vol. 1 of 1

About

Countries

Data & Research

Learning

News

Projects & Operations

Publications

Topics

Home > Data & Research > Research > Author Profile > Report Details

Watta satta : bride exchange and women's welfare in rural Pakistan

Author:	Jacoby, Hanan G.; Mansuri, Ghazala;	Collection Title:	Policy, Research working paper ; no. WPS 4126
Country:	Pakistan;	Date Stored:	2007/01/29
Document Date:	2007/02/01	Document Type:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English	Region:	South Asia
Report Number:	WPS4126	SubTopics:	Population & Development; Education and Society; Gender and Law; Anthropology
Volume No:	1 of 1

Summary: In a setting where husbands wield considerable coercive power, forms of marriage should adapt to protect the interests of women and their families. The authors study the pervasive marriage custom of watta satta in rural Pakistan, a bride exchange between families coupled with a mutual threat of retaliation. They show that watta satta may be a mechanism to coordinate the actions of two sets of in-laws, each of whom wish to restrain their sons-in-law but who only have the ability to restrain their sons. The authors' empirical results support this view. The likelihood of marital inefficiency, as measured by estrangement, domestic abuse, and wife's mental health, is significantly lower in watta satta arrangements as compared with conventional marriages, but only after properly accounting for selection.


Official Documents Official, scanned versions of documents (may include signatures, etc.)
File Type		Description	File Size (mb)

	PDF 24 pages	Official version*	0.52
	Text	Text version**

* The official version is derived from scanning the final, paper copy of the document and is the official,
archived version including all signatures, charts, etc.

** The text version is the OCR text of the final scanned version and is not an accurate representation of the final text.
It is provided solely to benefit users with slow connectivity.

Permanent URL for this page: http://go.worldbank.org/651A70H690