主 题：Hard to get: The scarcity of women and the competition for high-income men in urban China
时 间：2017年11月21日（周二）下午16:00-17:30
地 点：后主楼1620室
主讲人：张俊森教授，香港中文大学
主持人：李实教授，北京师范大学经济与工商管理学院

摘 要：
Reports of the difficulties of elite women in finding suitable mates have been increasing despite the growing scarcity of women in China. We show that this phenomenon can be a consequence of women’s preference for men who have higher incomes than themselves. With such a reference-dependent preference (RDP), the pool of men the high-income (h-) women desire shrinks as their income increases, while the pool of competing poorer (l-) women expands. Moreover, for h-women, even when high-income (H-) men are more plentiful and richer (as in China), the direct effect of a greater number of desirable men can be overwhelmed by the indirect effect of the competitive “entry” of l-women. We test for these competitive effects with online dating field experimental, Census, and China Family Panel Studies data. Consistent with competitive entry and its deterrence, the search intensity of beautiful l-women and h-women—irrespective of their beauty—for H-men increases with sex ratio and the income of H-men. The beauty of the wife of H-men and the marriage probability of l-women also increases. Although h-women are no less likely to marry than l-women, contra-Becker, their odds decrease when sex ratio or H-men’s income increases, particularly the plain-looking h-women. Our findings demonstrate the novel effects of women’s RDP for mate income.

主讲人简介：
张俊森，香港中文大学伟伦经济学讲座教授，世界计量经济学会院士，人口经济学杂志（Journal of Population Economics）编辑。