Sex ratios and marital matching outcomes in the Chinese marriage market

This paper examines how a male-biased sex ratio affects marital matching outcomes by using the 2015 Chinese mini-census data. Based on a Heckit approach and an instrumental variable approach, we find that when females are scarce, males marry females from a lower social class, i.e., less educated or with the rural Hukou. In addition, males are more likely to find spouses who are younger than themselves, born in a different province, and of a different ethnicity.