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We study marital assortative mating in education and its relation to dowry in India. There are four main results and contributions of this paper. First, instrumental variable estimates using Indian Human Development Survey-II data suggest existence of positive assortative mating in education levels of husband and wife. Second, this association is weaker in dowry-prominent districts suggesting that in districts with strong patriarchal norms, high dowry transfers could substitute for lower bride's education. Third, we study the independent effect of husband's and wife's education and its interaction on dowry. Estimates suggest that dowry rises with the groom's education and falls with the bride's schooling years. However, the joint effect of husband-and-wife education on dowry is negative, implying that though dowry rises with groom's education, the rate of increase is smaller the more educated the bride is. Finally, to explain the empirical results, we propose a theoretical model of assortative mating in the presence of dowry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We implemented a randomized controlled trial among transnational households in the Philippines estimating impacts of a financial education treatment, a financial access treatment, and the combination of the two on financial behaviors. We test whether there are complementarities between both interventions and provide insight into the nature of constraints operating in financial services markets. We find no evidence of complementarities between the financial education and access treatments. In addition, while we find no evidence of constraints in access to formal credit and savings products, our results suggest that access constraints exist in the formal insurance market. Impacts on other financial behaviors are suggestive of the importance of information constraints in financial decision-making. These results provide guidance to designers of financial interventions in similar populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate how financial education provided to college students influenced their financial knowledge and planning in a quasi-experimental setting where we control for student motivation to enroll in the course. Using a difference-in-difference strategy, we show that financial education led to an increase in financial knowledge and planning. Specifically, we find that financial education improved students' financial knowledge score by 11%, and financial planning score by 16%. No statistically significant effects are detected for student levels of financial prudence, discipline, or outcomes related to credit card usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]