Accounting for age in marital search decisions

Serife Akin, Matthew Butler and Brennan Platt
Additional contact information
Matthew Butler: Department of Economics, Brigham Young University

No 2013-01, Working Papers from University of Miami, Department of Economics

Abstract: The average quality of spouse an individual marries varies significantly with age at marriage, peaking in the mid-twenties, then declining through the mid-forties, as does the hazard rate of marriage. Using a non-stationary sequential search model, we identify the search frictions that generate these age-dependent marriage outcomes. We find that the arrival rate of suitors is the dominant friction, responsible for 80% of hazard rate variation and 49% of spouse quality variation. Surprisingly, the distribution of suitor quality is a lower-order concern. Also, individual choice, rather than worsening frictions, is responsible for most of the decline in spouse quality.

Keywords: Marriage market frictions; spouse quality; reservation quality over the life-cycle; non-stationary search (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 D83 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2013-01-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-dge
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://www.herbert.miami.edu/_assets/files/repec/WP2013-01.pdf First version, 2013 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Accounting for age in marital search decisions (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mia:wpaper:2013-01

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