Post-Intervention Marital Matching and Spouse Quality Adjustment
RCTClinical Trial
Concerns exist that delaying marriage or entering the labor force may penalize young women in conservative marriage markets by reducing their perceived marriageability or forcing them to accept lower-status spouses.
Picture this
Imagine a home buyer who decides not to buy a small starter house right away, but instead spends three years building up savings and getting a better credit score. When the buyer finally enters the housing market later, they can afford a stronger, better-built home with higher long-term value rather than being forced to settle for less.
What the evidence says
Young women from treatment villages who got married did not face lower spouse quality; instead, their husbands were significantly more likely to have completed secondary education and work in non-agricultural, white-collar occupations compared to husbands of married women in control villages.
- Who was studied
- Women aged 15–21 at baseline (18–24 at follow-up) who married during the 3-year study period across 160 rural Indian villages.
- How
- Longitudinal randomized controlled trial tracking marital status and spouse characteristics (education and occupation) at 3-year follow-up.
What to do
Promote young women's workforce participation and education as value-enhancing assets in formal marriage markets to prevent penalties associated with delayed marriage.
From the source
"Women who delayed marriage in treatment villages did not marry lower-quality spouses; if anything, women in treatment villages who got married matched with men who were more educated and had better jobs."
517 labor market opportunities QJE April '12.pdf