Journal Article

Dating preferences and meeting opportunities in mate choice decisions

Authors

Publication date

2013

Summary

Much empirical evidence shows that female and male partners look alike along a variety of attributes. It is, however, unclear how this positive sorting comes about because marriage is an equilibrium outcome arising from a process that entails searching, meeting, and choosing one another. This study takes advantage of unique data to shed light on the forces driving choices at the earliest stage of a relationship. Both women and men value physical attributes, such as age and weight, and reveal that their dating choices are assortative along several traits. Importantly, meeting opportunities have a substantial role in determining dating proposals.

Published in

Journal of Human Resources

Volume and page numbers

48 , 474 -508

ISSN

16

Links

http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1599694~S5

Notes

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*

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