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Dating Preferences and Meeting Opportunities in Mate Choice Decisions

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  • Francesconi, M
  • Belot, M

Abstract

Much empirical evidence shows that female and male partners look alike along a variety of attributes. It is however unclear how this positive sorting comes about, because marriage is an equilibrium outcome arising from a process that entails searching, meeting and choosing one another. This study takes advantage of a unique data set to shed light on the forces driving choices at the earliest stage of a relationship. Both women and men value physical attributes, such as age and weight, and reveal that their dating choices are assortative along several traits. Importantly, meeting opportunities are found to have a substantial role in determining dating proposals.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesconi, M & Belot, M, 2011. "Dating Preferences and Meeting Opportunities in Mate Choice Decisions," Economics Discussion Papers 2574, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:esx:essedp:2574
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    2. Bicakova, Alena & Jurajda, Štepán, 2016. "Field-of-Study Homogamy," IZA Discussion Papers 9844, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Sonia Jaffe & Simon Weber, 2019. "The effect of meeting rates on matching outcomes," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 67(2), pages 363-378, March.
    4. Lars Kirkebøen & Edwin Leuven & Magne Mogstad, 2021. "College as a Marriage Market," Discussion Papers 950, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    5. Ariel J. Binder & David Lam, 2022. "Is There a Male-Breadwinner Norm? The Hazards of Inferring Preferences from Marriage Market Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(6), pages 1885-1914.
    6. Wang-Sheng Lee & Terra McKinnish, 2018. "The marital satisfaction of differently aged couples," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(2), pages 337-362, April.
    7. Hani Mansour & Terra McKinnish, 2018. "Same-occupation spouses: preferences or search costs?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 1005-1033, October.
    8. Egebark, Johan & Ekström, Mathias & Plug, Erik & van Praag, Mirjam, 2021. "Brains or beauty? Causal evidence on the returns to education and attractiveness in the online dating market," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    9. Abdel Abdellaoui & Oana Borcan & Pierre Chiappori & David Hugh-Jones, 2022. "Trading Social Status for Genetics in Marriage Markets: Evidence from UK Biobank," University of East Anglia School of Economics Working Paper Series 2022-04, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    10. Mansour, Hani & McKinnish, Terra, 2014. "Same-Occupation Spouses: Preferences and Search Costs," IZA Discussion Papers 8370, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsutsui, 2021. "Spousal age gap and identity and their impact on the allocation of housework," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 1059-1083, February.
    12. Beloborodova, Anna, 2023. "Love or politics? Political views regarding the war in Ukraine in an online dating experiment," MPRA Paper 118862, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Timo Hener & Tanya Wilson, 2018. "Marital Age Gaps and Educational Homogamy – Evidence from a Compulsory Schooling Reform in the UK," ifo Working Paper Series 256, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    14. Gustaf Bruze, 2015. "Male And Female Marriage Returns To Schooling," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(1), pages 207-234, February.
    15. Neyt, Brecht & Vandenbulcke, Sarah & Baert, Stijn, 2019. "Are men intimidated by highly educated women? Undercover on Tinder," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    16. Anton A. Cheremukhin & Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria & Antonella Tutino, 2023. "Marriage Market Sorting in the U.S," Working Papers 2023-023, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    17. Yamamura, Eiji & Tsutsui, Yoshiro, 2019. "Spousal gaps in age and identity, and their impact on the allocation of housework," MPRA Paper 92059, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Karbowski, Adam & Deja, Dominik & Zawisza, Mateusz, 2016. "Perceived female intelligence as economic bad in partner choice," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 102, pages 217-222.
    19. Quentin Lippmann & Khushboo Surana, 2022. "The Hierarchy of Partner Preferences," Discussion Papers 22/08, Department of Economics, University of York.
    20. Wilson, Nicholas & Janicki, Martha, 2016. "A cut above the rest? Private anthropometrics in marriage markets," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 164-179.
    21. Wu, Anqi & Zheng, Xiaoting, 2022. "Assortative matching and commercial insurance participation: Evidence from the China Household Finance Survey," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

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