Love, Money, and Old Age Support : Does Parental Matchmaking Matter? / Huang, Fali

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

Huang, Fali

Contributor:

Huang, Fali

Jin, Ginger Zhe

Xu, Lixin Colin

Series:

Policy research working papers.

World Bank e-Library.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gender.

Governance.

Health, Nutrition and Population.

Poverty Reduction.

Social Development.

Local Subjects:

Gender.

Governance.

Health, Nutrition and Population.

Poverty Reduction.

Social Development.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (45 pages)

Other Title:

Love, Money, and Old Age Support

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C., The World Bank, 2015

System Details:

data file

Summary:

Parental involvement in matchmaking may distort the choice of spouse because parents are willing to substitute love for market and household production, which are more sharable between parents and their children. This paper finds supportive evidence in a survey of Chinese couples. In both rural and urban areas, parent matchmaking is associated with less marital harmony between the couple, more submissive wives, and a stronger belief in old age support for the son. In contrast, its association with couple income differs by rural and urban regions, perhaps because of differences in earning opportunities and in the enforcement of the one-child policy. Moreover, parent matchmaking is associated with more children for the couple and lower schooling for wives only in rural areas. Thus, in places with a stronger need for old age support, parents tend to be involved in matchmaking and use it to select submissive daughters-in-law to ensure old age support. The results render support to Becker, Murphy and Spenckuch (2015), who imply that parents would meddle with children's preferences to ensure their commitment to providing old age support.