New research led by Natalie Bau, professor of public policy and economics at UCLA, examines how the longstanding institution of dowry in India facilitates a son’s ability to migrate to areas with better job opportunities.

Using new survey data, the researchers studied how financial gifts from a bride’s family are reallocated within a groom’s family, playing a role in resolving frictions between parents and sons when migration occurs.

“These questions matter because they speak directly to why dowry traditions have persisted into modern times,” Bau and her colleagues wrote in a VoxDev article.

Migration disrupts traditional family support structures, in which sons live near their parents and care for them in old age, according to their research, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

“We develop a model in which dowry can promote migration by allowing sons to make upfront transfers to their parents and ease constraints on income sharing,” they found.