The efficient marriage market hypothesis : a direct test

Hon-Kwong LUI, Wing SUEN

Research output: Working paperDiscussion paper series

Abstract

This paper takes Becker's efficient marriage market hypothesis at face value and directly confront it with data from Hong Kong. The theory of optimal assignment provides a framework that allows us to develop an empirical model of spouse selection which resembles a Tobit model. This model will recover some of the parameters of the production function for marital output and can be used to address issues relating to positive or negative assortative matching as well as marginal product pricing in marriage markets. We also use a computer algorithm to solve the optimal assignment problem for the imputed marital outputs. The degree to which the actual pairing of husbands and corresponds to the optimal pairing provides a goodness-of-fit test of the efficient marriage market hypothesis.

Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationHong Kong
PublisherUniversity of Hong Kong
Number of pages22
Publication statusPublished - 1995

Publication series

NameSchool of Economics and Finance Discussion Paper
PublisherThe University of Hong Kong
No.166

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