Love and Money by Parental Matchmaking: Evidence from Urban Couples in China | Zendy

Fali Huang | Zendy; Ginger Zhe Jin | Zendy; Lixin Colin Xu | Zendy

AI Assistant Blog Pricing

Home ZAIA Blog

Open Access

Love and Money by Parental Matchmaking: Evidence from Urban Couples in China

Author(s) -

Fali Huang,

Ginger Zhe Jin,

Lixin Colin Xu

Publication year - 2012

Publication title -

american economic review

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 16.936

H-Index - 297

eISSN - 1944-7981

pISSN - 0002-8282

DOI - 10.1257/aer.102.3.555

Subject(s) - spouse , china , welfare , sample (material) , altruism (biology) , social psychology , economics , psychology , demographic economics , attraction , labour economics , sociology , political science , chemistry , chromatography , anthropology , law , market economy , linguistics , philosophy

Parental involvement in marriage matchmaking may distort the optimal spouse choice because parents are willing to substitute love for money. The rationale is that the joint income of married children can be shared among extended family members more easily than mutual attraction felt by the couple themselves, and as a result, the best spouse candidate in the parents' eyes can differ from what is optimal to the individual, even though parents are altruistic and care dearly about their children's welfare. We find supporting evidence for this prediction using a unique sample of urban couples in China in the early 1990s.

The content you want is available to Zendy users.

Already have an account? Click here to sign in.

Having issues? You can contact us here

Accelerating Research