This study aims to discover how the culturalbackgrounds of the marriage market affect school dropoutoutcome among girls in secondary school level in Ban-gladesh. This study focuses on the practice of dowry pay-ments that a bride’s family pays to the groom’s family.Previous research has indicated that the dowry practice inmarriage market hinders girls’ education in Bangladesh.This study examines how parents’ hypergamic tendency(i.e., insuring that the groom’s educational level is higherthan or equal to the bride’s education level) and dowrypayment expectation influence school dropout outcomesfor girls and relate to the parents’ class background factors.Data were collected in September, 2010 using question-naires from parents of female students in the sub-districtPirgonj in Bangladesh. ‘‘structural equation modeling’’ wasconducted to test direct and indirect associations amongvariables. The results show that parents’ hypergamic ten-dency and dowry payment expectation are both negativelyassociated with their daughters’ school dropout outcomes.Compared with employed parents, unemployed parents areless hypergamic and less likely to expect to a higher dowrypayment than the employed parents. The main reason forthis difference is that unemployed parents prefer theirdaughters to leave school earlier to marry grooms whohave lower level of education, as higher-educated groomsdemand a higher dowry price in the marriage market in Bangladesh.

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• Parents’ Class Background and Hypergamy in the Marriage Market of Bangladesh: Does the Dowry Affect School Dropout Among Girls?