Anthropometry of Love - Height and Gender Asymmetries in Interethnic Marriages

36 Pages Posted: 18 Nov 2009

See all articles by Michèle Belot

Michèle Belot

University of Edinburgh

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

Date Written: November 2009

Abstract

Both in the UK and in the US, we observe puzzling gender asymmetries in the propensity to outmarry: Black men are 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 partly explain 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 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 and Fidrmuc, Jan and Fidrmuc, Jan, Anthropometry of Love - Height and Gender Asymmetries in Interethnic Marriages (November 2009). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 2846, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1507635 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1507635

Michèle Belot

University of Edinburgh ( email )

Old College
South Bridge
Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9JY
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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