The dark side of competition: Gender differences

Simone Chang, Kamhon Kan () and Xiaobo Zhang

No 1585, IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: The literature has placed great emphasis on the advantages of competition on market efficiency while ignoring the downside of competition on health. Using a natural experiment in Taiwan, we show that excessive competition comes at a health cost. In the late 1940s, half a million soldiers retreated to Taiwan from Mainland China after a civil war. They were initially not allowed to get married until the marriage ban was essentially lifted in 1959. As a large number of soldiers flooded the marriage market, men faced much stronger mating competition than before, which in turn increased the likelihood of male depression and mortality.

Keywords: gender; health; markets; marriage; men; mortality; sex ratio; governance; China; Asia; Eastern Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen and nep-his
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1585

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