Famine and matching by socioeconomic status—evidence from the Great Chinese Famine

In this paper, we investigate the effects of early-life exposure to famine on survivor matching by SES at the time of the first marriage. Based on a 2006 national survey, we exploit cross-region and cross-cohort variations in the intensity of exposure to the Great Chinese Famine to conduct a difference-in-differences (DID) based empirical analysis. We find that women exposed to famine in early life showed better matching outcomes in terms of different socioeconomic indicators than those not exposed to famine in early life. Additionally, the effects were more obvious and significant with family-level socioeconomic measures. As for men, compared with those without early-life famine exposure, men born during the famine had worse matching outcomes. Our findings further prove the gender differentials in mating preferences and matching outcomes in terms of SES. It also suggests that marriage in China is a family affair with spousal family characteristics being an important deciding factor.