Abstract
This century, female marriage market terms of trade in India, as measured by dowry payments, have deteriorated despite a worsening shortage of brides. We argue that this development can be explained by male vis a vis female heterogeneity, and that dowry inflation could be a result of an increase in male heterogeneity. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that increasing scarcity would raise prices, we explore the possibility of a reverse causality, increasing shortage ofwomen driving dowry inflation. The argument is that scarcity per se might tum the marriage market terms oftrade against women by increasing the return on male human capital investments.