Indian Marriage Market :: Freexhange/economist.com

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Given the growing scarcity of women, how can the parents of boys continue to demand such high fees? I would suspect that the practice will, in fact, abate eventually, but probably not soon enough to prevent millions more girls being aborted. The other interesting economic fact to emerge from the article is that it is actually rich families who are most likely to do this.... This makes sense; in a poor country, ultrasounds are a luxury.

There are some things that economists cannot explain.

In the UAE the tradition amongst nationals is that men pay the dowry. Families demand very high dowries, so high that there is a spinster problem - a high proportion of women who never marry. The men can take foreign brides, and many do. As they say, de gustabus non disputandum. But I'm still puzzled.