Lady and the Trump: Status and Wealth in the Marriage Market

Johan Almenberg and Anna Dreber

No 728, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: We examine a hitherto unexplored aspect of intergenerational transmission of economic standing, namely culturally determined status markers and their valuation in the marriage market. We take nobility to be such a status marker. We propose a two-trait extension of the optimal sorting model in Becker (1973). Using data on Swedish marriages we test the hypothesis that nobility have a greater probability of marrying up in terms of wealth. Our main finding is a sizeable and statistically significant positive effect for nobility. We use unique data on the evolution of nobility to make some predictions about the longevity of this institution.

Keywords: Marriage; Status; Intergenerational Transmission; Nobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 D20 J11 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2008-01-15, Revised 2008-07-10
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Forthcoming in Kyklos.

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https://www.ifn.se/wfiles/wp/wp728.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Lady and the Trump: Status and Wealth in the Marriage Market (2009)
Working Paper: Lady and the Trump: Status and Wealth in the Marriage Market (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0728

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