Males’ Wage Inequality and Females’ Propensity to Marry in Iran

The average age of never-married females over 18 has increased from 23.9 to 26.1 (1991-2011) in Iran. Labor market prospects, particularly males’ wage structure are key determinants of females’ propensity to marry. The main purpose of this paper is to address the question of how men's wage inequality affects female marriage rates in Iran. To this end, I base my empirical model on the literature on search and matching models in the marriage market. The theory argues that wage inequality induces women to search longer, and hence marry at older ages. Using the Households income and expenditure survey for two distinct years, 2006 and 2011, this research aims to examine the role of male wage inequality in the incidence of females’ staying single in urban areas of Iran. Findings reveal wage inequality has a positive association with the females’ marriage delay decision, but males’ wage over females has a negative and significant effect on the remaining single. These results are robust with alternative measures of male wage disparity. In addition, the sign of marginal effects for the wage disparities is unaltered for age categories, for the sampling years, and while the sample is restricted only to the capital city in each province