The impacts of the gender imbalance on the marriage market: Evidence from World War II in Japan

Kota Ogasawara and Erika Igarashi

Labour Economics, 2025, vol. 92, issue C

Abstract: This study uses the unprecedented changes in the sex ratio due to the losses of men during World War II to identify the impacts of the gender imbalance on marriage market outcomes in Japan. Using newly digitized census-based historical statistics, we find evidence that men have a stronger bargaining position in the marriage market than women do. Under the conditions of relative male scarcity, women are less likely to marry. Although the entry of younger cohorts with a natural gender balance into the marriage market attenuated its magnitude, this tendency persisted until the mid-1950s. Widowed women facing male scarcity are particularly unable to remarry. Our results suggest that reinstating military pensions in the early 1950s further reduced their incentive to remarry.

Keywords: Gender imbalance; Institutional change; Marriage market; Military mortality; Second World War; Sex ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J11 J12 J16 N30 N35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:92:y:2025:i:c:s0927537124001490

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102653

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