What is marriage? Existing treatments identify the gains to marriage but say little regarding the foundations of the … institution itself. This paper proposes that marriage is designed to facilitate sexual co-operation in a world without reliable … marriage and both sex and reproduction. This has undermined the traditional justification for marriage. What remains is a …

-in-differences estimation strategy to compare how the same individual invests at different points in time (before and after marriage or divorce … portfolios. We find that marriage acts as a financial risk-reducer for men and as a financial risk-increaser for women, in the … sense that women increase the fraction of wealth invested in stocks after marriage and decrease it after divorce, whereas …

or for married women. We suggest a marriage market mechanism through which male BMI and earnings are positively related … traits are more relevant in the marriage market than the corresponding male traits. …

sexual knowledge and practice before and outside marriage, and personal experiences of precisely these engagements with …

more attractive on the marriage market). Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyzes the cohabiting and the marital … that higher wages are mostly due to positive selection – into marriage as well as into cohabitation. Supplementary analysis … cohabitation to marriage. Originality/value – This is the first application of non-parametric matching in a comparative study of …

, wife height, wet land, dry land, years of marriage and years of education for women & men on these decisions. According to …