In Books He Finds a Wife but She Misses a Husband: The Economic Foundation of Marriage in China

Much research has shown that the relationship between women’s economic prospects and marriage formation has shifted from negative to positive in the western societies in the last few decades in the Western societies. Theoretical framework used to explain the phenomena in developed countries has gradually shifted from Gary Becker’s gender specialization model to V. K. Oppenheimer’s mate searching theory. Drawing data from the 2006 and 2008 Chinese General Social Survey, we investigate circumstances across cohorts of Chinese men and women born between 1940 and 1979. Our findings show different patterns in China. Educational attainment delays women’s marriage formation, but accelerates men’s entering marriage. However, other economic indicators, including occupation, have negative effects on both men’s and women’s marriage formation. We argue that neither model can explain marriage formation patterns in China without the understanding of the unique Chinese socioeconomic and cultural context, and that contextually relevant theories and hypotheses should be developed.