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Love, money, and parental goods: Does parental matchmaking matter?

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  • Huang, Fali
  • Jin, Ginger Zhe
  • Xu, Lixin Colin
Abstract
While parental matchmaking has been widespread throughout history and across countries, we know little about the relationship between parental matchmaking and marriage outcomes. Does parental involvement in matchmaking help ensure their needs are better taken care of by married children? This paper finds supportive evidence using a survey of Chinese couples. In particular, parental involvement in matchmaking is associated with having a more submissive wife, a greater number of children, a higher likelihood of having any male children, and a stronger belief of the husband in providing old age support to his parents. These benefits, however, are achieved at the cost of less marital harmony within the couple and lower market income of the wife. The results render support to and extend the findings of (Becker et al., 2015) where parents meddle with children’s preferences to ensure their commitment to providing parental goods such as old age support.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, Fali & Jin, Ginger Zhe & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2017. "Love, money, and parental goods: Does parental matchmaking matter?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 224-245.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:45:y:2017:i:2:p:224-245
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2016.09.005
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    1. Guo, Rufei & Lin, Lin & Yi, Junjian & Zhang, Junsen, 2020. "The cross-spousal effect of education on health," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    2. Lucie Giorgi & Eva Raiber, 2024. "For better or for babies: The effect of the two-child policy in China on who gets married," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2024 13, Stata Users Group.
    3. Cull, Robert & Gan, Li & Gao, Nan & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2022. "Social capital, finance, and consumption: Evidence from a representative sample of Chinese households," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    4. Du, Shichao, 2023. "(Un)Health from parental intervention: Does the marriage formation pathway influence married people's health?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    5. Jiayi Wen & Xiaoqing Yu, 2024. "Insuring Long-Term Care in Developing Countries: The Interaction between Formal and Informal Insurance," Papers 2408.14243, arXiv.org.
    6. Rosenzweig, Mark & Zhang, Junsen, 2017. "Foreword for the symposium in honour of Gary Becker," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 217-218.
    7. Bowen Li & Cai Zhou & Ji Luo, 2022. "Way of love and after‐marriage well‐being: Evidence from China," International Studies of Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(3), pages 394-410, September.
    8. Xu Lixin Colin, 2016. "Cheung, Becker and Marriage," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 65-76, June.
    9. You, Jing & Yi, Xuejie & Chen, Meng, 2016. "Love, Life, and “Leftover Ladies” in Urban China," MPRA Paper 70494, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Christine Ho, 2019. "Child’s gender, parental monetary investments and care of elderly parents in China," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 741-774, September.
    11. Wu, Jiabin & Zhang, Hanzhe, 2021. "Preference evolution in different matching markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Marriage; Matchmaking; Parental matchmaking; China; Agency cost; Old age support; Parental goods; Preference manipulation; Endogenous institutions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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