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. 2012;8(2):151-172.
doi: 10.1080/17441730.2012.675677.

Tradition and Change in Marriage Payments in Vietnam, 1963-2000

Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan  1 , John Knodel
Affiliations

Tradition and Change in Marriage Payments in Vietnam, 1963-2000

Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan et al. Asian Popul Stud. 2012.

Abstract

Trends and determinants of marriage payments have rarely been examined at the population level despite their plausible implications for the welfare of family and the distribution of wealth across families and generations. In this study, we analyze population-based data from the Vietnam Study of Family Change to document prevalence and directions of marriage payments in Vietnam from 1963 to 2000. We investigate the extent to which structural and policy transformations (particularly market reform and the socialist policy that banned brideprice) influenced the practice of marriage payments as well as estimate how societal changes indirectly impacted payments via their effects on population characteristics. Results indicate that marriage payments surged following market reform but also reveal more nuanced trends and regional differences during earlier years. While the socialist attempts to eradicate brideprice appear to have been moderately successful in the North prior to economic renovation the evidence suggests they were largely unsuccessful in the South. Results suggest that structural and policy change explained most of the observed variations in marriage payments and that changing characteristics of the individuals who married mattered relatively little. We interpret the reemergence of marriage payments as attesting to resilience of traditional values and the unraveling of the socialist agenda, especially in the North, but also as a reflection of economic prosperity associated with market reform.

Keywords: Marriage payments; Vietnam; brideprice; dowry.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cohort and regional trends in brideprice, dowry, and bidirectional transfersa. ***Based on ANOVA, difference between North and South is significant at p≤0.001; **Significant at p≤0.01; *Significant at p≤0.05 a Due to the exclusion of the bridge years between each marriage cohort (1972–77 and 1986–91), the curves appear more compressed than the actual historical timeline.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cohort and regional trends in content of marriage payments
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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