Matching across Markets: An Economic Analysis of Cross-Border Marriage

So Yoon Ahn ()
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So Yoon Ahn: University of Illinois at Chicago

No 2021-047, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: Severe gender imbalances coupled with the stark income differences across countries are driving an increase in cross-border marriages in many Asian countries. This paper theoretically and empirically studies who marries whom, including how cross-border couples are selected, and how marital surplus is allocated within couples in the marriage markets of Taiwan (a wealthier side with male-biased sex ratios) and Vietnam (a poorer side with balanced sex ratios). Among the cross-border marriages that are predominantly made up of Taiwanese men and Vietnamese women, I nd that Taiwanese men are selected from the middle level of the socioeconomic status distribution, and Vietnamese women are positively selected for cross-border marriages. Moreover, I show that changes in costs of cross-border marriage, incurred by immigration-policy changes and proliferation of matching services, also affect the welfare of Taiwanese and Vietnamese who do not participate in cross-border marriages by altering marriage rates, matching partners, and intra-household allocations.

Keywords: Taiwan; Vietnam; Asia; marriage market; sex ratios; socioeconomic status; marital matching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C78 D10 D13 F22 J11 J12 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-isf, nep-mig and nep-sea
Note: FI
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Ahn_20 ... -border-marriage.pdf First version, October 2, 2020 (application/pdf)

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