Searching for partners via friends: implications for household formation and economic decisions

The aim of this project is to understand the interplay between the search for partners, household formation and economic decisions. Making an investment in the ability to search for a better partner affects the characteristics of the match, but also the bargaining position in the relationship by determining the quality of the outside options in case of divorce. We will introduce search frictions in the marriage market proposing a matching model where search frictions are captured by a matching function or by search of partners via social networks. Modeling search behavior implies a better description of the intra-household decision process, which in turn yields a more powerful analysis of household choice behavior and its welfare implications on spouses and their children. The aim of this project, which is part of a bigger research agenda, is to estimate non-parametrically these models using revealed preferences analysis to provide a structural description of the within-household allocation as a function of the search behavior defining the current and future outside options on marriage markets.

Keywords:MARRIAGE MARKET, ECONOMICS, SOCIAL NETWORKS

Disciplines:Labour and demographic economics, Household behaviour and family organisations