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Author: Helmchen, Lorens A.
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Helmchen, Lorens A. |
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Marriage Market Incentives to Invest in Health Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Chicago, 2004 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Keyword(s): Demography; Family Studies; Gender Differences; Labor Economics; Marriage; Sex Ratios; Weight Previous studies have shown that body weight is a strong predictor for the likelihood of marriage and the onset of chronic disease in later life. This paper examines the role of marriage markets in participants' choices of body weight. I present a model, in which pre-marital investments raise candidates' productivity in marital unions and thus their appeal to prospective partners. As a result, the marriage market rewards participants with more sought-after attributes by raising their marriage probability, their share of marriage surplus, and the size of the marriage surplus itself. At the same time, each candidate's investment imposes a negative externality on competitors' marriage probabilities and surplus shares. In a rational expectations equilibrium, a decline in the relative number of available partners lowers the upper bound of the marriage probability and may thereby reduce the incentive to invest. To identify this effect empirically, I combine panel data from the NLSY with figures from the 1990 Census to track how single men and women adjust their body weight in response to age-related changes in the sex ratio of their respective marriage markets. Among single women, a decline in the relative number of available mates is associated with a significant increase in body weight. |
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Bibliography Citation
Helmchen, Lorens A. Marriage Market Incentives to Invest in Health. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Chicago, 2004. |