Author Description

This dissertation, "An Econometric Model of Spouse Selection" by Hon-kwong, Lui,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled An Econometric Model of Spouse Selection submitted by LUI Hon-Kwong for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in February 1996 This dissertation develops an empirical model of spouse selection which isderivedfromGaryBecker'stheoryofanecientmarriagemarket. Themodel is straightforward to implement and can be estimated by running a Tobit re- gression with zero as the dependent variable. Previous empirical studies ignore Becker's hypothesis that the maximizing behaviour of individual participants in the marriage market leads to optimal pairing. Moreover, in the literature, the issue of positive versus negative assortative matching of quantitative and qualitative traits is not analyzed in a unied framework. Thus, a new method has to be devised to model the optimal marital choice and to address the is- sue of assortative mating. In this dissertation, an econometric model of spouse selection is developed using the theory of optimal assignment. The model also provides a general and unied framework to deal with marginal product pricing andassortativematchingofqualitativeandquantitativetraits. Empiricalresults suggest that the marriage market exhibits positive assortative mating. Variants ofthemodelarederivedbyrelaxingitsassumptionsandtheconclusionsofthese variants are qualitatively the same as those of the basic model. Employing the parameter estimates of the production function, the optimal assignment prob- lem can be solved with