Marrying Up: The Role of Sex Ratio in Assortative Matching

Ran Abramitzky (), Adeline Delavande () and Luis Vasconcelos ()
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Ran Abramitzky: Stanford University

No 09-030, Discussion Papers from Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: By observing the large negative exogenous shock to the French male population from to WWI casualties, we study the effect of a change in the sex ratio on marital assortative matching by social class. First, we analyzed a novel data set that links marriage-level to French population and military mortality. Then, we calculated the sex ratio in a region with military mortality, which exhibits exogenous geographic variation. Ultiamtely, we found that men married women of higher social class than themselves more often in regions that experienced a larger decrease in the sex ratio. A decrease in the sex ratio of man to woman from 1.00 to 0.90 increased the probability that men married up by 8 percent. These findings provide insight into individuals’ preferences for spouses. Men appear to prefer to marry higher-class spouses, but cannot do so when the sex ratio is balanced.

Keywords: Marriage; sex ratio; assortative matching; social classes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-02
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Marrying Up: The Role of Sex Ratio in Assortative Matching (2011)
Working Paper: Marrying Up: The Role of Sex Ratio in Assortative Matching (2010)
Working Paper: Marrying Up: The Role of Sex Ratio in Assortative Matching (2008)
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