PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS AND HOUSEHOLD INCOME: TRADING HEIGHT FOR EDUCATION IN THE MARRIAGE MARKET

Michela Ponzo and Vincenzo Scoppa ()

No 201307, Working Papers from Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF

Abstract: We analyze to what extent physical attractiveness is related to lifetime economic outcomes through the marriage market, investigating whether individual height and weight affect the probability of marrying with a “high quality partner”, measuring quality with the partner’s educational attainment. Using a large dataset of Italian couples, we find that taller individuals tend to mate with more educated partners (controlling for the former’s educational level and other personal traits). This effect is valid both for males and females, but it is more pronounced for males. These findings are robust to a number of checks.

Keywords: Marriage Markets, Mating; Height, Education, Assortative Mating (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 J12 J16 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 13 pages
Date: 2013-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
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http://www.ecostat.unical.it/RePEc/WorkingPapers/WP07_2013.pdf First version, 2013-10 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:clb:wpaper:201307

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