ON THE EMERGENCE OF TOYBOYS: THE TIMING OF MARRIAGE WITH AGING AND UNCERTAIN CAREERS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Coles, Melvyn G.; Francesconi, Marco
• 署名单位: University of Essex
• 刊物名称: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0020-6598
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2354.2011.00651.x
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 825-853
• 关键词: 2-sided search; cohabitation; EMPLOYMENT; education; MARKETS; england; TRENDS; long; AGE

摘要

We explore how gender bias in career opportunities affects matching in a marriage market with search frictions and where an individual's fitness decays with age. We document a being left on the shelf effect where young singles, who find the marriage market rapidly thins with age, rush into early partnership. Singles with stronger career opportunities, however, have a greater option value to defer marriage. More equal career opportunities for women (captured by greater schooling and better occupations) potentially explain the recent emergence of toyboy unions, in which the woman is at least 5 years older than her partner.