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Fatter Attraction: Anthropometric and Socioeconomic Matching on the Marriage Market

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  • Pierre-Andre Chiappori

    () (Columbia University - Department of Economics)

  • Sonia Oreffice

    () (Universitat d.Alacant and IZA - Department of Economics)

  • Climent Quintana-Domeque

    () (Universitat d.Alacant - Department of Economics)

Abstract

We construct a matching model on the marriage market along more than one characteristic, where individuals have preferences over physical attractiveness and socioeconomic characteristics that can be summarized by a one-dimensional index combining these various attributes. We show that under a (testable) separability assumption, the indices are ordinally identified. We estimate the model using data from the PSID. Our separability tests do not reject. We find that among men, a 10% increase in BMI can be compensated by a higher wage of around 3%. Similarly, for women, an additional year of education may compensate up to three BMI units.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Columbia University, Department of Economics in its series Discussion Papers with number 1011-06.

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Date of creation: 2011
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Handle: RePEc:clu:wpaper:1011-06

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  1. Shimer, R. & Smith, L., 1998. "Assortive Matching and Search," Papers 98-09, Michigan - Center for Research on Economic & Social Theory.
  2. Esther Duflo & Abhijit Banerjee & Maitreesh Ghatak & Jeanne Lafortune, 2009. "Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India," Working Papers id:2144, eSocialSciences.
  3. Linda Y. Wong, 2001. "Structural Estimation of Marriage Models," Computing in Economics and Finance 2001 222, Society for Computational Economics.
  4. Pierre-Andre Chiappori & Murat Iyigun & Yoram Weiss, 2006. "Investment in Schooling and the Marriage Market," DEGIT Conference Papers c011_034, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
  5. Patrick Legros & Andrew F. Newman, 2002. "Beauty is a Beast, Frog is a Prince: Assortative Matching with Nontransferabilities," Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series dp-149, Boston University - Department of Economics, revised Nov 2004.
  6. Lundborg, Petter & Nystedt, Paul & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2009. "The Height Premium in Earnings: The Role of Physical Capacity and Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 4266, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. Euna Han & Edward C. Norton & Sally C. Stearns, 2009. "Weight and wages: fat versus lean paychecks," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(5), pages 535-548.
  8. Climent Quintana Domeque & Sonia Oreffice, 2010. "Anthropometry and socioeconomics in the couple: evidence from the PSID," Working Papers. Serie AD 2010-16, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
  9. John Cawley, 2004. "The Impact of Obesity on Wages," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
  10. John Cawley, 2000. "Body Weight and Women's Labor Market Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 7841, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Cited by:
  1. Dupuy, Arnaud & Galichon, Alfred, 2012. "Personality Traits and the Marriage Market," IZA Discussion Papers 6943, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  2. María Dolores Guilló Fuentes & Alfonsa Denia Cuesta, 2011. "Labour status and involuntary employment: family ties and part-time work in Spain," Working Papers. Serie AD 2011-11, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
  3. Arnaud Dupuy & Alfred Galichon, 2012. "Canonical Correlation and Assortative Matching: a remark," Working Papers 2012/40, Maastricht School of Management.
  4. Chiappori, Pierre-André & Oreffice, Sonia & Quintana-Domeque, Climent, 2010. "Matching with a Handicap: The Case of Smoking in the Marriage Market," IZA Discussion Papers 5392, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  5. Raphaela Hyee, 2011. "Do Marriage Markets Influence the Divorce Hazard?," Working Papers 685, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
  6. Machado, Cecilia, 2012. "Selection, Heterogeneity and the Gender Wage Gap," IZA Discussion Papers 7005, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. M. Belén Cobacho & Mariano Bosch, 2011. "Discrimination in second hand consumer markets: evidence from a field experiment," Working Papers. Serie AD 2011-09, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
  8. Chiappori, Pierre-André & Oreffice, Sonia & Quintana-Domeque, Climent, 2011. "Black-White Marital Matching: Race, Anthropometrics, and Socioeconomics," IZA Discussion Papers 6196, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

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