Effort Application in an Arranged Marriage: A Game-Theoretic Analysis
- 1 Department of Economics, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA
- 2 Graduate School of International Service, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Abstract
In this note we study a simple game model of effort application by two individuals (1 and 2) who wish to have an arranged marriage. We first specify the net utility function of individual i as a function of this individual’s own effort and the effort applied by individual j,i ≠ j , in three distinct cases. Next, we compute the ith individual’s best response function. Finally, we analyze effort application by two identical pairs of individuals who are located in two different nations. In the first (second) nation, arranged marriages are uncommon (common) and hence it is relatively difficult (straightforward) for the two individuals to apply and coordinate effort. We explain why the net utility of the pair wishing to have an arranged marriage in the first nation is likely to be much lower than the corresponding net utility of the pair in the second nation.
- Becker, G.S. (1973) A Theory of Marriage: Part I. Journal of Political Economy, 81, 813-846. https://doi.org/10.1086/260084
- Manser, M. and Brown, M. (1980) Marriage and Household Decision-Making: A Bargaining Analysis. International Economic Review, 21, 31-44. https://doi.org/10.2307/2526238
- Peters, H.E. (1986) Marriage and Divorce: Informational Constraints and Private Contracting. American Economic Review, 76, 437-454.
- Cornelius, T.J. (2003) A Search Model of Marriage and Divorce. Review of Economic Dynamics, 6, 135-155. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1094-2025(02)00012-1
- Vaillant, N.G. and Harrant, V. (2008) Determinants of the Likelihood of Finding the Right Partner in an Arranged Marriage: Evidence from a French Matchmaking Agency. Journal of Socio-Economics, 37, 657-671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2006.12.055
- Levine, R., Sato, S., Hashimoto, T. and Verma, J. (1995) Love and Marriage in Eleven Cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26, 554-571. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022195265007
- Kumar, P. and Dhyani, J. (1996) Marital Adjustment: A Study of Some Related Factors. Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology, 23, 112-116.
- Batabyal, A.A. (1998) Aspects of Arranged Marriages and the Theory of Markov Decision Processes. Theory and Decision, 45, 241-253. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004998730922
- Batabyal, A.A. (2003) On Decision Making in Arranged Marriages with a Stochastic Reservation Quality Level. Applied Mathematics Letters, 16, 933-937. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0893-9659(03)90019-X
- Batabyal, A.A. (2005) A Game Model of Dowry Determination in an Arranged Marriage Context. Economics Bulletin, 10, 1-8.
- Liu, X. (2007) Optimal Dynamic Path of Effort on Marriage: Differences between Arranged and Love Marriages. Applied Economics Letters, 14, 49-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504850500425691
- Batabyal, A.A. and Beladi, H. (2011) A Stochastic Dynamic Programming Approach to Decision Making in Arranged Marriages. Applied Mathematics Letters, 24, 2197-2200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aml.2011.06.025
- Batabyal, A.A. (2016) Making an Arranged Marriage Work: A Game-Theoretic Analysis. Theoretical Economics Letters, 6, 416-419. https://doi.org/10.4236/tel.2016.63046
- Uberoi, P. (2006) Freedom and Destiny. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.