Fatter attraction: anthropometric and socieconomic matching on the marriage market

• Pierre Chiapore ^[2] ; Sonia Oreffice ^[1] ; Climent Quintana Domeque ^[1]
  1. [1] Universitat d'Alacant

     Universitat d'Alacant

     Alicante, España

     
  2. [2] Columbia University

     Columbia University

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Working papers = Documentos de trabajo: Serie AD, Nº. 23, 2010, págs. 1-54
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • We construct a matching model on the marriage market along more than one characteristic, where individuals have preferences over physical attractiveness (proxied by anthropometric characteristics) and market and household productivity of potential mates (proxied by socioeconomic characteristics), with a certain degree of substitutability between them. Men and women assess each other through an index combining these various attributes, so the matching is one-dimensional. We estimate the sorting and trade-offs among these characteristics using data from the PSID, finding evidence of compensation between anthropometric and socioeconomic characteristics for both genders, and of equality of these marginal rates of substitution across traits. Among men, a 10% increase in BMI can be compensated by a higher wage, the supplement being estimated to be around 3%. Similarly, for women, an additional year of education may compensate up to three BMI units.