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Effect of Online Dating on Assortative Mating: Evidence from South Korea

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  • Soohyung Lee

Abstract

Online dating services have increased in popularity around the world, but a lack of quality data hinders our understanding of their role in family formation. This paper studies the effect of online dating services on marital sorting, using a novel dataset with verified information on people and their spouses. Estimates based on matching techniques suggest that, relative to other spouse search methods, online dating promotes marriages that exhibit weaker sorting along occupation and geographical proximity but stronger sorting along education and other demographic traits. Sensitivity analysis, including the Rosenbaum Bounds approach, suggests that online dating's impact on marital sorting is robust to potential selection bias. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Soohyung Lee, 2016. "Effect of Online Dating on Assortative Mating: Evidence from South Korea," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(6), pages 1120-1139, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:japmet:v:31:y:2016:i:6:p:1120-1139
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Yujung Hwang & Áureo de Paula & Fangzhu Yang, 2025. "The rise of online dating and heterogamous marriages," IFS Working Papers W25/59, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    2. Xu, Yujing & Yang, Huanxing, 2019. "Targeted search with horizontal differentiation in the marriage market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 31-62.
    3. Cho, Yoon Y. & Lee, Soohyung, 2021. "How to Improve Worker-Firm Matching: Evidence from a Temporary Foreign Worker Market," IZA Discussion Papers 14328, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Anton Cheremukhin & Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria & Antonella Tutino, 2023. "Marriage Market Sorting in the U.S," Working Papers 2023-023, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 25 Sep 2024.
    5. Daniel Boller & Michael Lechner & Gabriel Okasa, 2025. "The effect of sport in online dating: evidence from causal machine learning," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Yoonyoung Cho & Soohyung Lee, 2021. "How to Improve Worker–Firm Matching: Evidence from a Temporary Foreign Worker Market," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 37, pages 419-454.
    7. Musa Eren Celdir & Soo-Haeng Cho & Elina H. Hwang, 2024. "Popularity Bias in Online Dating Platforms: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 26(2), pages 537-553, March.
    8. Nicolas Frémeaux & SeEun Jung & Arnaud Lefranc, 2024. "Assortative mating and earnings inequality in South Korea," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(1), pages 211-236, March.
    9. Chihiro Inoue & Yusuke Ishihata & Suguru Otani, 2026. "Marital Sorting on Pre-Marital Preferences for Household Behavior," Papers 2603.25372, arXiv.org, revised May 2026.
    10. Yujung Hwang & Áureo de Paula & Fangzhu Yang, 2026. "The rise of online dating and heterogamous marriages," IFS Working Papers W26/37, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    11. Behnaz Bojd & Hema Yoganarasimhan, 2022. "Star-Cursed Lovers: Role of Popularity Information in Online Dating," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(1), pages 73-92, January.

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