Anthropometry of Love: Height and Gender Asymmetries in Interethnic Marriages

28 Pages Posted: 23 Feb 2009

See all articles by Michèle Belot

Michèle Belot

University of Oxford - Nuffield Department of Medicine

Jan Fidrmuc

Brunel University - Department of Economics and Finance; L.E.M., Université de Lille; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); Global Labor Organization (GLO); Institute for Strategy and Analysis, Government Office of the Slovak Republic

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Date Written: January 16, 2009

Abstract

Both in the UK and in the US, we observe puzzling gender asymmetries in the propensity to outmarry: Black men are substantially more likely to have white spouses than Black women, but the opposite is true for Chinese: Chinese men are half less likely to be married to a White person than Chinese women. We argue that differences in height distributions, combined with a simple preference for a taller husband, can explain a large proportion of these ethnic-specific gender asymmetries. Blacks are taller than Asians, and we argue that this significantly affects their marriage prospects with whites. We provide empirical support for this hypothesis using data from the Health Survey for England and the Millenium Cohort Study, which contains valuable and unique information on heights of married couples.

Keywords: Intermarriage, gender, height

JEL Classification: J12, J15

Suggested Citation

Belot, Michèle V. K. and Fidrmuc, Jan and Fidrmuc, Jan, Anthropometry of Love: Height and Gender Asymmetries in Interethnic Marriages (January 16, 2009). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1345263 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1345263

Michèle V. K. Belot

University of Oxford - Nuffield Department of Medicine ( email )

New Road
Oxford, OX1 1NF
United Kingdom

Jan Fidrmuc (Contact Author)

Brunel University - Department of Economics and Finance ( email )

Uxbridge UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
+44 1895 266 528 (Phone)
+44 1895 269 770 (Fax)

L.E.M., Université de Lille ( email )

France

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Collogne
Germany

Institute for Strategy and Analysis, Government Office of the Slovak Republic ( email )

Bratislava
Slovakia

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