PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Belot, Michèle
AU  - Francesconi, Marco
TI  - Dating Preferences and Meeting Opportunities in Mate Choice Decisions
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.48.2.474
DP  - 2013 Mar 31
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 474--508
VI  - 48
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/48/2/474.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/48/2/474.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2013 Mar 31; 48
AB  - Much empirical evidence shows that female and male partners look alike along a variety of attributes. It is, however, unclear how this positive sorting comes about because marriage is an equilibrium outcome arising from a process that entails searching, meeting, and choosing one another. This study takes advantage of unique data to shed light on the forces driving choices at the earliest stage of a relationship. Both women and men value physical attributes, such as age and weight, and reveal that their dating choices are assortative along several traits. Importantly, meeting opportunities have a substantial role in determining dating proposals.