Premarital migration and marriage payments: Evidence from Indonesian men

While bride price customs are widespread in many developing countries, little is known about their consequences on men’s decisions. In this paper, we exploit a quasi-natural experiment of a school-building program in Indonesia (INPRES) to investigate the relationship between marriage norms and the internal migrations of young men. Combining anthropological, administrative, and individual-based datasets, we implement a triple-difference approach. We show that the less advantaged young men, who have fewer resources to cope with rising marriage costs, are more likely to migrate out of their district of origin when the women they are expected to marry benefit from the program. These findings suggest that the interaction between marital norms and policies can result in unintended consequences, shaping major economic decisions such as premarital migration.