Marriage, Divorce, and Sexual Behavior Economics

Week 5: Marriage and Divorce, The Mating Market, Sexual Behaviour

Announcements

• There are no classes on Feb 17 and 21 due to study week.
• The midterm test is in-person on March 3, 2025 (Monday) at 9:10 a.m. in ENG-LG06.
• The midterm test is 90 minutes long.
• Students should bring their TMU card (photo I.D.), pencils, and an eraser to the midterm.
• Calculators are allowed during the midterm.
• The midterm test will consist of multiple choice questions.
• The midterm will cover all materials from week 1 to 6, including lecture slides.
• A mid-term review will be held on Feb 28 (Friday).
• A household is both a consumption and a production unit.
• Household decisions have economic and social implications.
• Marriage is a contract with commitments and constraints.
• Marriage is an investment project involving income, expenses, and assets.
• Marriage is a social institution with roles for the court and religion.
• The economics of marriage involves costs and benefits, both monetary and non-monetary.
• Marriage allows for economies of scale in household production.
• The marriage provides division of labor and promote specialization and trade.
• Durability of marriages is affected by the expected benefits of marriage.

Costs of Marriage

• Besides monetary expenses, non-monetary costs include loss of independence.
• Actions will have effects on family and decision making will rely on collective action
• More restrictions of behaviour and high decision making costs may affect the marriage.
• Husbands and wives often agree to have many decisions be administratively made.
• Savings in decision costs can yield benefits that more than offset wrong decisions
• The division of decision-making power within the home can add efficiency.
• The individual bears the cost of not getting goods in the amount/quality for preferences.
• Family members can be taxed like any citizen, and forced to pay for collective goods and projects
• Spouses may agree to associate with certain mutual friends as compromises for both.
• The risk cost is developing emotional bond with others and losing the opportunities to date.
• "Opportunity costs" is the loss of chance to have married a more desirable spouse in the future.

The Relevance of Love

• A person's satisfaction in marriage depends on the satisfaction of their spouse if they are in love
• With greater utility, the other person is better off and is more motivated to improve the situation.
• The presence of love reduces the costs each must incur in marriage.
• If love does not exist, more family resources will have to be diverted into "policing".
• Some people do marry without love for money as well as benefits.
• An "efficient" marriage is one in which the partners are in love and alike in values/preferences.
• From perspective of family as a producing unit, love adds to the efficiency of the household.
• Each partner will maximize the total benefit from being in a family in the least costly ways.
• Some marriages between loving partners end in separation/divorce due to disagreements

Divorce: The Role of The Court

• Courts referee the division of the family asset between the married partners to the time of divorce
• A Court ensures that each family has some tangible and nontangible property rights that are available
• By giving each partner property rights, husband or wife can abuse eachtother
• An individual might allow themselves to be exploited, reasoning that he or she is better than cost
• If the parties are single and living together, either party can walk away without constraints.
• Divorce can be emotionally draining on all former spouses and to the children
• An economic reason for being is that divorce can be a drain women's lifetime incomes and wealth
• Financial anxiety impacts stress in a and leads to poor quality decision making
• The number of divorces decline during national economic downturn in U.S
• Divorces tend to pick up during economic growth when incomes rise across the board

Divorce: Costs

• If there are children, the costs of a divorce are higher.
• It is not surprising that wealthy families divorce less than poor families.
• Well-educated people are more like to divorce less frequently

Spouse Selection

• A rational individual will seek to maximize utility for them in all other endeavors.
• An individual will seek to minimize the monetary and intangible resources.
• A individual marriage someone who agrees with him/her.
• Rational individuals marry people who have similar values and preferences.
• Greater benefits in searching for a spouse mean greater costs will have in searching process
• The extent to which people search for a spouse affects cost of divorce.
• If a divorce is made impossible, then there are more benefits to be had with the right person
• If divorce is made impossible. that decision would carry a greater cost with someone wrong

Spouse Selection and Divorce

• The resources applied to search for a mate will directly correlate with difficulty to divorce
• "Search may take the form of trial living together, consensual unions, or simply prolonged dating.”
• When divorce becomes easier the proportions of persons married legally will increase
• The more costly divorce is, smaller the fraction of will be married
• On the contrary, the cheaper divorce is, people will incur sear costs and reflected in younge age
• Durability of marriages it positively related to the extent to which they search marriage prior
• Greater ease in divorce and more "wrong" choices indicates less resources will be spent

The Mating Market

• The mating market similar to job market?
• Marriage requires to persuade someone
• supply and demand in dating motivates people to work, study, and even move for prospects

Speed Dating

• Speed daters are able to propose to date and so electronically after the event is minimized
• Researches were able to look at both genders based on location and proposition habits.
• While women proposed with one out of 10 men, mens were less choosy.
• People's dating habits is based on who showed up that speed date.

The Marriage Super Market

• 20 men are in room. Any man and woman who press together cna collect money
• One woman is left over and there is scarce power
• The "odd" start and get smaller profit the men got much more profit

The Marriage Supermarket

• The law of 1 price
• If their 1 product on a market
• The shortage gives powerful and spoiler that has to be undercut.
• The potential bargain increase will always be bargained.

Contraceptive Pill

• The chooses women the unlucky. weaker bargain over all
• Sone will cut of marry and playboy lifestyle
• The is less need look and free riding.

Contraceptive Pill

• Women who get pregnant can plan
• If these plan
• Divorce rates
• Option is greater, greater
• Marriage can do their duty it will lead.

Global Gender Ratios

• The men number is now rising the gender ration
• The now the gender ratio
• This happens with china and social policy
• China has more market to say?
• The is more boys and crime rate

Polygamy

• Women and over prefer
• With this men ahs great high wives
• Who's husband

Polygamy

• Question: Will men prefer to have one wife only or many wives?
• It follows from can afford more wives.
• Th e husband peak productivi
• The chance and other stuff.

Sexual Behaviour

• There is now major economic factor.
• The is as desire/need for sex
• As well is now demanded
• And services profession