Publication Type
Working Paper
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
11-2010
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Divorce, sex ratios, marriage, skewness, matching, non-transferable utility
Discipline
Behavioral Economics | Family, Life Course, and Society
Research Areas
Applied Microeconomics
First Page
1
Last Page
32
Publisher
SMU Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series, No. 28-2010
City or Country
Singapore
Citation
GUHA, Brishti.
Sex Ratios, Divorce Laws and the Marriage Market. (2010). 1-32.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/1243
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.