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Title: A “Reproductive Capital” Model of Marriage Market Matching

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2017

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Abstract: We often consider the toll the ticking biological clock takes on women, but not the economic loss it causes via its impact on marriage market prospects. I document two new facts in Census data demonstrating the potential importance of fertility in marriage market outcomes. First, women who are older at first marriage are matched with poorer husbands, whereas men who marry when older marry richer spouses. Second, the returns to education on the marriage market have historically been non-monotonic, with graduate educated women marrying poorer spouses than college educated women. To study the economic effects of time-limited fertility, I provide a matching model of the marriage market where women’s human capital investments impact a second dimension, “reproductive capital.” The model predicts precisely the non-monotonic matching equilibrium observed in the data when the fertility loss from investment is large relative to the income gains. Moreover, the model predicts the more recent movement toward assortative matching as family sizes have fallen and the return to women’s human capital has risen. To test the model’s central mechanism, I use an incentive-compatible experiment to show that age has a causal negative impact on women’s marriage market value. For every year a woman ages beyond 30, she must earn an extra $7,000 a year to remain equally attractive to potential partners.

Url: http://assets.wharton.upenn.edu/~corlow/Low_RepCap.pdf

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Authors: Low, Corinne

Publisher: Wharton Business Economics and Public Policy Department

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Education, Family and Marriage, Gender

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