Sex Ratios, Divorce Laws and the Marriage Market

• Main Author: GUHA, Brishti
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2010
• Subjects: Divorce; sex ratios; marriage; skewness; matching; non-transferable utility; Behavioral Economics; Family, Life Course, and Society
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/1243; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soe_research/article/2242/viewcontent/sexratios.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

We show how an interaction between the skewness of the sex ratio and the jump in divorce rates after a liberalization in divorce laws can obtain in a model of marriage market matching with non-transferable utility. This model is partly motivated by a significant cross-country correlation between these two variables. We also find that men’s hopes or fears about women’s marriage market odds are self-confirming under mutual consent, resulting in multiple equilibria. The multiplicity vanishes with a more skewed sex ratio or a liberalization of divorce laws. Our work sheds some light on the possible implications of divorce liberalization and pro-marriage policies.