151. What Do Parents Want? Parental Spousal Preferences in China
- Author
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Raiber, Eva, Ren, Weiwei, Bovet, Jeanne, Seabright, Paul, Wang, Charlotte, Lhuillier, Elisabeth, Aix-Marseille School of Economics - - AMSE (EUR)2017 - ANR-17-EURE-0020 - EURE - VALID, Institut for Advanced Study in Toulouse - - IAST2010 - ANR-10-LABX-0029 - LABX - VALID, Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques (AMSE), École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-École Centrale de Marseille (ECM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Yunnan Normal University, University of Northumbria at Newcastle [United Kingdom], Toulouse School of Economics (TSE-R), Université Toulouse Capitole (UT Capitole), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST), IPAG Business School, Eva Raiber and Paul Seabright acknowledge IAST funding from the French National Research Agency (ANR) underthe Investments for the Future (Investissements d'Avenir) program, grant ANR-17-EURE-0010., Eva Raiber also acknowledges funding from the ANR grant ANR-17-EURE-0020., Weiwei Ren thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71540032)., ANR-17-EURE-0020,AMSE (EUR),Aix-Marseille School of Economics(2017), ANR-10-LABX-0029,IAST,Institut for Advanced Study in Toulouse(2010), Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), Université Toulouse 1 Capitole (UT1), and Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)
- Subjects
Preference estimation ,Economics and Econometrics ,China ,JEL: D - Microeconomics/D.D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics/D.D1.D10 - General ,Matching ,JEL: I - Health, Education, and Welfare/I.I2 - Education and Research Institutions/I.I2.I26 - Returns to Education ,Development ,Marriage ,[SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance ,[SHS.ECO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance ,Parental matchmaking ,JEL: J - Labor and Demographic Economics/J.J1 - Demographic Economics/J.J1.J12 - Marriage • Marital Dissolution • Family Structure • Domestic Abuse - Abstract
International audience; In many societies, parents are involved in selecting a spouse for their child, integrating this with decisions about premarital investment such as education. Do spousal preferences of parents and children conflict? We estimate parents’ spousal preferences based on survey choices between random profiles, elicited from parents or other relatives who actively search for a spouse on behalf of their adult child in Kunming, China. We simulate marriage outcomes based on preferences for age and education and compare them with patterns in the general population and with the preferences of a survey of students. The common concern that there may be aversion to highly educated or high-earning wives is somewhat corroborated in parents’ preferences but not in students’ preferences, nor in outcomes, where homogamy is common and wives who are more educated than husbands are as common as husbands who are more educated than wives. Parents prefer wives younger than their husbands, yet most couples are the same age, an outcome consistent with student preferences. Overall, divergences between parental and child preferences exist but are neither major nor very influential in explaining observed outcomes. Fears that highly educated women face diminished marriage prospects appear less serious than often claimed.
- Published
- 2021