A curious article on the impact of marriage culture on the economy has been published in the recent issue of the National Bureau of Economic Research Working Papers. The authors analyzed marriage markets in central region of China between about 1300 and 1850.
It has been discovered that marriage matching was far from being random. For both males and females there was positive assortative matching. It means that everyone was looking for a wealthier partner. As a result income inequality during the sample period increased significantly. The inequality levels decreased only when the marriage mating rates were getting lower.
Besides it has become evident that matching levels for young males were higher than for young females.
Does it mean that women were more likely to marry for love rather than for money? If so, could we assume that being emotional rather than rational when it comes to marriage leads to a more equal and prosperous society?