The evolution of partner preferences: Evidence using matrimonial ads from Canada, France, India and the United States

Quentin Lippmann and Khushboo Surana
Additional contact information
Quentin Lippmann: AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Using the text from matrimonial ads, we assemble a novel data set to describe the evolution of partner preferences over time and space. Analyzing ads published in Canada, France and India between 1950 and 1995, we show that stated preferences for economic criteria have fallen sharply in favor of personality traits in the two Western countries while they remain the most prevalent in India. Using ads covering various regions from the US and Canada in 1995, we show that personality traits are consistently more demanded than economic criteria. We provide evidence that these results are unlikely to be driven by the composition effects over time, role of parents or changing social norms. We show that the changes over time are particularly strong for women and accompany narrowing gender gaps in labor force participation in Western countries. We discuss the implications for understanding the evolution of assortative mating over time.

Date: 2025-05
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2025, 233, pp.106950. ⟨10.1016/j.jebo.2025.106950⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: The evolution of partner preferences: Evidence using matrimonial ads from Canada, France, India and the United States (2025)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05069122

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.106950

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().