Lady and the Trump: Status and Wealth in the Marriage Market
Abstract
We examine a hitherto unexplored aspect of intergenerational transmission of economic standing, namely culturally determined status markers and their valuation in the marriage market. We take nobility to be such a status marker. We propose a two-trait extension of the optimal sorting model in Becker (1973). Using data on Swedish marriages we test the hypothesis that nobility have a greater probability of marrying up in terms of wealth. Our main finding is a sizeable and statistically significant positive effect for nobility. We use unique data on the evolution of nobility to make some predictions about the longevity of this institution.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by Research Institute of Industrial Economics in its series Working Paper Series with number 728.Length: 28 pages
Date of creation: 15 Jan 2008
Date of revision: 10 Jul 2008
Publication status: Forthcoming in Kyklos.
Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0728
Contact details of provider:
Postal: Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 665 4500
Fax: +46 8 665 4599
Email:
Web page: http://www.ifn.se/
More information through EDIRC
Related research
Keywords: Marriage; Status; Intergenerational Transmission; Nobility;Other versions of this item:
- Johan Almenberg & Anna Dreber, 2009. "Lady and the Trump: Status and Wealth in the Marriage Market," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 161-181, 04.
- Almenberg, Johan & Dreber, Anna, 2008. "Lady and the Trump: Status and Wealth in the Marriage Market," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 690, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 10 Jul 2008.
- D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
- D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
- J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
- J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2008-02-09 (All new papers)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Fernández, Raquel & Guner, Nezih & Knowles, John, 2001.
"Love and Money: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Household Sorting and Inequality,"
CEPR Discussion Papers
3040, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Raquel Fernández & Nezih Guner & John Knowles, 2005. "Love and Money: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Household Sorting and Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 120(1), pages 273-344, January.
- Fernandez, Raquel & Guner, Nezih & Knowles, John, . "Love and Money: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Household Sorting and Inequality," Open Access publications from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid info:hdl:10016/5085, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
- Raquel Fernandez & Nezih Guner & John Knowles, 2001. "Love and Money: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Household Sorting and Inequality," NBER Working Papers 8580, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Fernandez, Raquel & Guner, Nezih & Knowles, John, . "Love and Money: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Household Sorting and Inequality," Open Access publications from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid info:hdl:10016/5084, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
- Raquel Ferndez & Nezih Guner & John Knowles, 2001. "Love and Money: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Household Sorting and Inequality," Penn CARESS Working Papers d3d043317c8e26c4039c21aa0, Penn Economics Department.
- Bisin, A. & Verdier, T., 1999.
"Beyond the Melting Pot : Cultural Transmission, Marriage, and the Evolution of Ethnic and Religious Traits,"
DELTA Working Papers
1999-10, DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure).
- Alberto Bisin & Thierry Verdier, 2000. ""Beyond The Melting Pot": Cultural Transmission, Marriage, And The Evolution Of Ethnic And Religious Traits," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(3), pages 955-988, August.
- Bisin, A. & Verdier, T., 1999. "Beyond the Melting Pot: Cultural Transmission, Marriage, and the Evolution of Ethnic and Religious Traits," Papers 1999-10, Laval - Laboratoire Econometrie.
- Michael Kremer, 1996.
"How Much Does Sorting Increase Inequality?,"
NBER Working Papers
5566, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Kremer, Michael, 1997. "How Much Does Sorting Increase Inequality?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(1), pages 115-39, February.
- Kremer, M., 1996. "How Much Does Sorting Increase Inequality?," Working papers 96-18, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
- Gary S. Becker & Kevin M. Murphy & Ivan Werning, 2005. "The Equilibrium Distribution of Income and the Market for Status," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(2), pages 282-310, April.
- Raquel Fernandez & Richard Rogerson, 2000.
"Sorting and Long-Run Inequality,"
NBER Working Papers
7508, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Raquel Fernández & Richard Rogerson, 2001. "Sorting And Long-Run Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(4), pages 1305-1341, November.
- Fernandez, R. & Rogerson, R., 1999. "Sorting and Long-Run Inequality," Working Papers 99-22, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
- Fernández, Raquel & Rogerson, Richard, 2000. "Sorting and Long-Run Inequality," CEPR Discussion Papers 2352, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis, 2002. "The Inheritance of Inequality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 3-30, Summer.
- Scott Drewianka, 2003. "Estimating Social Effects in Matching Markets: Externalities in Spousal Search," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 409-423, May.
- Benny Moldovanu & Aner Sela & Xianwen Shi, 2007.
"Contests for Status,"
Journal of Political Economy,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 115, pages 338-363.
- Moldovanu, Benny & Sela, Aner & Shi, Xianwen, 2005. "Contests for Status," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 139, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
- Sheryl Ball & Catherine Eckel & Philip J. Grossman & William Zame, 2001. "Status In Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(1), pages 161-188, February.
- Becker, Gary S, 1973. "A Theory of Marriage: Part I," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(4), pages 813-46, July-Aug..
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo & Maitreesh Ghatak & Jeanne Lafortune, 2009.
"Marry for What: Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India,"
NBER Working Papers
14958, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther & Ghatak, Maitreesh & Lafortune, Jeanne, 2009. "Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India," CEPR Discussion Papers 7300, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Dufloi & Maitreesh Ghatak & Jeanne Lafortune, 2012. "Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India," Documentos de Trabajo 423, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
- Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo & Maitreesh Ghatak & Jeanne Lafortune, 2009. "Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 009, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
- Esther Duflo & Abhijit Banerjee & Maitreesh Ghatak & Jeanne Lafortune, 2009. "Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India," Working Papers id:2144, eSocialSciences.
- Yamamura, Eiji, 2009. "Socio-economic status, gender, and spouse’s earnings: affect of family background on matching," MPRA Paper 17100, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0728For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Elisabeth Gustafsson).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

