Issue Information

Objectives: Several empirical studies point out the relevance of individuals’ physical attributes—such as height,\udweight, beauty—in the labor market. In the same way, physical characteristics may affect lifetime prospects through\udtheir impact on the selection of a partner in the marriage market. We analyzed to what extent an individual’s height\udand weight (arguably affecting physical attractiveness, as documented in many studies) are related to lifetime economic\udoutcomes through the marriage market, investigating whether individual height and weight affect the probability\udof marrying with a “high-quality partner,” measuring quality as the partner’s educational attainment or as the\udpartner’s prospective labor income.\udMethods: Using a large Italian dataset of married (and cohabiting) couples—the 2005 Italian Health Conditions\udSurvey which provides information on health conditions, individual characteristics, and socioeconomic variables—we\udestimated separate OLS and Ordered Probit regressions for females and males. Since weight might be endogenously\uddetermined, to avoid any estimation bias we also estimated a reduced form equation in which predetermined height\udaffects directly and indirectly (through BMI) physical attractiveness and, as a consequence, the choice of a partner with\uda given educational attainment.\udResults: Our findings suggest that height is a desirable trait in mating selection affecting the partner’s socioeconomic\udcharacteristics: we found that taller individuals tended to mate with more educated partners, controlling for\udtheir own educational level—to take into account the tendency for assortative mating for education—and for other personal\udtraits such as age, geographical residence, city size, and the presence of health problems. On the other hand, we\udshowed that individuals with higher BMI were married to partners with lower levels of education. The results also provide\udevidence of non-linearity in the relationship between height and educational attainment of the partner. These findings\udare confirmed for both males and females, but being taller seems to be more relevant for males, while being\udthinner is more important for females. We have also found that taller and thinner females and males tend to be married\udwith partners earning higher labor incomes. These findings were robust to a number of checks.\udConclusions: Our findings confirm that the physical characteristics that an individual brings to the marriage market\udinfluences the outcome in this market: physical attractiveness is exchanged in the marriage market for a higher educational\udattainment and the ability to earn a higher labor income