Abstract
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 a unique data set 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 are found to have a substantial role in determining dating proposals.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 474-507 |
| Number of pages | 34 |
| Journal | The Journal of Human Resources (JHR) |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2013 |