Recently, Batabyal (1998) has analyzed the nature of the decision making process in arranged marriages. Specifically, he has shown that a marrying agent's optimal policy depends only on the properties of the current marriage proposal, independent of whether there is recall of earlier marriage...

Although arranged and love marriages have been around for a long time, to the best of our knowledge, there are no comparative analyses in the economics literature of the relative merits of one or the other kind of marriage. As such, the purpose of this note is to conduct a theoretical inquiry...

Even though arranged and love marriages have been around for a long time, to the best of our knowledge, there are no comparative analyses in the economics literature of the relative merits of one or the other kind of marriage. Consequently, the purpose of this note is to conduct a theoretical...

We employ a stochastic dynamic programming approach to study decision making by an individual wishing to have an arranged marriage. First, we show that this individual never opts out of a voluntarily agreed upon marriage. Second, we demonstrate that our marrying individual uses a reservation...

We employ a stochastic dynamic programming approach to study decision making by an individual wishing to have an arranged marriage. First, we show that this individual never opts out of a voluntarily agreed upon marriage. Second, we demonstrate that our marrying individual uses a reservation...

In contemporary times, in both the East and in the West, individuals wishing to get married have made increasing use of matchmakers. This notwithstanding, economists have paid scant attention to the strategies employed by matchmakers and to the likelihood of success arising from the use of these...

In contemporary times, in both the East and in the West, individuals wishing to get married have made increasing use of matchmakers. This notwithstanding, economists have paid scant attention to the strategies employed by matchmakers and to the likelihood of success arising from the use of these...

Recently, Batabyal (2005) has analyzed a game model of dowry determination in which a mediator plays a key role. Batabyal's analysis shows that the equilibrium dowry offers from the bride and the groom optimally trade off the desire to make an assertive offer with the likelihood that this offer...

In contemporary times, Batabyal (1999) has demonstrated that when the decision to get married in an arranged marriage is studied in a dynamic and probabilistic setting, it is possible that a marrying individual will never get married. This outcome arises because the marrying individual in...

Even though arranged marriages have been around for quite some time, economists have paid little attention to the nature of decision making in such marriages. Therefore, we know very little about the efficacy of traditional methods of decision making in arranged marriages. Given this state of...