Can Population Growth Cause Dowry Inflation? Theory and the Indian Evidence

The empirical evidence on the role of a demographic marriage squeeze in the Indian dowry inflation of the last century has been mixed. Moreover, Anderson (2005) argues in a theoretical setting, that a population growth-led marriage squeeze must cause dowry deflation if the spousal age gap is to narrow over time. In this paper, I show that the apparently contradictory findings of the economic literature are perfectly consistent with each other. I demonstrate, using Anderson’s theoretical framework, that a demographic squeeze may lead to higher dowries in the periods of the squeeze compared with periods of no squeeze. Furthermore, I show that data drawn from such a dowry path can replicate the results obtained in the empirical literature on the Indian dowry inflation. I conclude that a demographic marriage squeeze remains a plausible explanation for the Indian dowry inflation.Dowry, Marriage squeeze, Population growth

Can Patient Self-Management Explain the Health Gradient? Goldman and Smith (2002) Revisited

Using the Health and Retirement Study, Goldman and Smith (2002) [“Can patient self-management help explain the SES health gradient?”, PNAS, 99(16), 10929-34] find that poor self-management of health has significant effects on health deterioration and that such poor behavior is less likely to occur among the more educated. They conclude that self-management of health is an explanation for the much-documented positive correlation between education and health outcomes—the education-health gradient. In this paper, I show, using the same data, that controlling for poor self-management behavior has little impact on the education-health gradient, raising doubt about whether such behavior can be said to explain the gradient at all. I also show that Goldman and Smith's results—both the effect of adherence on health and that of education on adherence—depend on how poor self-maintenance behavior is defined. Lastly, using another component of socioeconomic status, viz. resources, I find that a gradient in resources and health does exist, but this too is not impacted much by self-maintenance. These findings cast doubt on whether self-management can explain the gradient in health and socioeconomic status, when the latter is represented by education or resources.Health gradient, Education, Patient self-management

Population Growth and Rising Dowries: The Long-Run Mechanism of a Marriage Squeeze

India has experienced a much-documented dowry inflation since the 1950s, which has been attributed to a spurt in population growth post-World War II. Will recent declines in fertility lead to a reversal of this trend and a regime of bride price? My paper develops a dynamic general equilibrium model of marriage markets, sex-ratio choice and population growth that is used to characterize the long-run relationship between population dynamics and marriage payments in India. I show that in the absence of exogenous sex preferences for offspring, and with no asymmetries between men and women except in desired ages of marriage (of self and spouse), any long run equilibrium will be characterized by an excess supply of brides, dowry payments and a masculine sex ratio.The result holds for parameters consistent with marriage market indicators in India.Dowry, Marriage squeeze, Population growth

Balance of interactions determines optimal survival in multi-species communities

We consider a multi-species community modelled as a complex network of populations, where the links are given by a random asymmetric matrix J, with fraction 1-C of zero entries, where C reflects the over-all connectivity of the system. The non-zero elements of J are drawn from a gaussian distribution with mean 'mu' and standard deviation . The signs of the elements J reflect the nature of density-dependent interactions, such as predatory-prey, mutualism or competition, and their magnitudes reflect the strength of the interaction. In this study we try to uncover the broad features of the interspecies interactions that determine the global robustness of this network, as indicated by the average number of active nodes (i.e. non-extinct species) in the network, and the total population, reflecting the biomass yield. We find that the network transitions from a completely extinct system to one where all nodes are active, as the mean interaction strength goes from negative to positive. We also find that the total population, displays distinct non-monotonic scaling behaviour with respect to the product 'mu'C, implying that survival is dependent not merely on the number of links, but rather on the combination of the sparseness of the connectivity matrix and the net interaction strength. Moreover, the total population levels are optimal when the network has intermediate net positive connection strengths. At the local level we observe marked qualitative changes in dynamical patterns, ranging from anti-phase clusters of period 2 cycles and chaotic bands, to fixed points, under the variation of mean 'mu' of the interaction strengths. Lastly, we propose an effective low dimensional map to capture the behavior of the entire network, and this provides a broad understanding of the interplay of the local dynamical patterns and the global robustness trends in the network.Comment: 19 Pages(single column), 9 Figures, Submitte

Protocols for characterizing quantum transport through nano-structures

In this work, we have analyzed the exact closed-form solutions for transport quantities through a mesoscopic region which may be characterized by a polynomial functional of resonant transmission functions. These are then utilized to develop considerably improved protocols for parameters relevant for quantum transport through molecular junctions and quantum dots. The protocols are shown to be experimentally feasible and should yield the parameters at much higher resolution than the previously proposed ones.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure