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spousal characteristics. In particular, body size is measured by means of the body mass
index (BMI), which is defined as an individual’s body weight (in kilograms) divided by
the square of his or her height (in meters).
Assessing the extent of marital sorting in terms of these anthropometric and
socio-economic dimensions allows us to analyze the associations among individuals’
body size, weight, and height in the marriage market. Does the market penalize obesity
and reward height (and income) by matching less physically fit individuals with
partners who are less socially desirable in regard to other physical and/or socioeconomic
dimensions? What is the extent of marital sorting in BMI, weight and height
between spouses? Do men assess these attributes differently from the way women do?
We find evidence of positive assortative mating in each anthropometric
characteristic (spouses’ BMI, weight, and height). Moreover, our empirical results show
that women’s physical attractiveness (proxied by anthropometric measures, namely
BMI and weight) plays a more important role in the marriage market than does men’s,
with heavier women being thrice penalized, tending as they do to marry men who are
poorer, less educated, and shorter. Shorter men, in contrast, tend to marry heavier and
less educated women. Moreover, a husband’s excess weight is negatively correlated
with only the wife’s height. These gender-asymmetric cross-associations of body size,
weight, height, and income have not been emphasized in the literature, and male
shortness and weight penalties have been often overlooked. Also, a systematic analysis
of spousal sorting along anthropometric characteristics was missing in economic
studies.
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