Marital Sorting on Pre-Marital Preferences for Household Behavior
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arXiv
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866914578548391936 |
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| author | Inoue, Chihiro Ishihata, Yusuke Otani, Suguru |
| author_facet | Inoue, Chihiro Ishihata, Yusuke Otani, Suguru |
| contents | We examine marital sorting using novel data from a marriage-matching platform that records both a dating-to-marriage pipeline and pre-marital attributes, including preferences for children and for the division of housework and childcare. Unlike census or post-marital surveys, characteristics are collected before matching, and objectively measurable attributes are verified using official documents, providing an ideal setting to study matching and sorting free from post-marital adjustment. Using a multidimensional matching framework across twelve attributes, we find assortative matching along all dimensions. Age is the most salient trait, while preferences for children are second--exceeding education--an economically important margin invisible in standard data. A low-dimensional factor representation shows that fertility preferences constitute a distinct sorting dimension. Exploiting the platform's dating-to-marriage pipeline, we show that sorting on fertility preferences emerges at later serious-relationship stages. A theoretical analysis suggests that the magnitude of sorting along this margin is consistent with the veto model of fertility decisions. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_25372 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Marital Sorting on Pre-Marital Preferences for Household Behavior Inoue, Chihiro Ishihata, Yusuke Otani, Suguru General Economics Economics We examine marital sorting using novel data from a marriage-matching platform that records both a dating-to-marriage pipeline and pre-marital attributes, including preferences for children and for the division of housework and childcare. Unlike census or post-marital surveys, characteristics are collected before matching, and objectively measurable attributes are verified using official documents, providing an ideal setting to study matching and sorting free from post-marital adjustment. Using a multidimensional matching framework across twelve attributes, we find assortative matching along all dimensions. Age is the most salient trait, while preferences for children are second--exceeding education--an economically important margin invisible in standard data. A low-dimensional factor representation shows that fertility preferences constitute a distinct sorting dimension. Exploiting the platform's dating-to-marriage pipeline, we show that sorting on fertility preferences emerges at later serious-relationship stages. A theoretical analysis suggests that the magnitude of sorting along this margin is consistent with the veto model of fertility decisions. |
| title | Marital Sorting on Pre-Marital Preferences for Household Behavior |
| topic | General Economics Economics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.25372 |