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Determinants of the likelihood of finding the right partner in an arranged marriage: Evidence from a French matchmaking agency

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  • Vaillant, Nicolas G.
  • Harrant, Valérie

Abstract

In a recent article published in this review, On the likelihood of finding the right partner in an arranged marriage, Batabyal [Batabyal, A.A., 2001. On the likelihood of finding the right partner in an arranged marriage. The Journal of Socio-Economics 33, 273-280] formalizes the decision-making process in arranged marriages. His analytic framework can be used to deal with the behavior of the clients of a marriage bureau. We use data from a French matchmaking agency to estimate the various factors affecting the probability of finding the "right" partner on the one hand and the number of meetings before finding such a partner on the other hand. Empirical results indicate that the fact of having previously been married and the presence of dependent children are assumed to be negative factors for a potential marriage partner, so that the individuals possessing these characteristics have less meetings and have more difficulties to find a partner.

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  • Vaillant, Nicolas G. & Harrant, Valérie, 2008. "Determinants of the likelihood of finding the right partner in an arranged marriage: Evidence from a French matchmaking agency," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 657-671, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:37:y:2008:i:2:p:657-671
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    Cited by:

    1. Batabyal, Amitrajeet & Yoo, Seung Jick, 2016. "Effort Application in an Arranged Marriage: A Game-Theoretic Analysis," MPRA Paper 74745, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Belot, Michèle & Fidrmuc, Jan, 2010. "Anthropometry of love: Height and gender asymmetries in interethnic marriages," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 361-372, December.
    3. Mao, Fubing & Ma, Lijia & He, Qiang & Xiao, Gaoxi, 2020. "Match making in complex social networks," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 371(C).

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