This paper develops a two sided matching model of premarital cohabitation and marriage in which premarital cohabitation serves as a period of learning. We solve for the optimal policy to be followed by individuals by treating the model as a three stage dynamic programming problem. We find that...

This paper develops a two-sided search-matching model with imperfectly observed types and learning. Since agents do not observe one another’s type accurately, they first engage in a probationary partnership to learn one another’s true type. Using the metaphor ofpremarital cohabitation and...