Uncertain paternity, mating market failure, and the institution of marriage

Arbeitspapier

This paper provides a first microeconomic foundation for the institution of marriage. Based on a model of reproduction, mating, and parental investment in children, we argue that marriage serves the purpose of attenuating the risk of mating market failure that arises from incomplete information on individual paternity. Raising the costs of mating to individuals, marriage circumscribes female infidelity and mate poaching among men, which reduces average levels of paternal uncertainty in society. A direct gain in male utility, the latter induces men to invest more in their putative offspring, a fact that benefits women because of the public good nature of children. Able to realize Pareto improvements, marriage as an institution is hence explained as the result of a societal consensus on the need to organize and structure mating behavior and reproduction in society for the benefit of paternal certainty and biparental investment in offspring.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: SFB 649 Discussion Paper ; No. 2007,013

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Household Behavior: General ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
• Subject: Marriage ; Mating ; Paternal Uncertainty ; Parental Investment ; Ehe ; Mikroökonomische Fundierung ; Eltern ; Kinder ; Bildungsinvestition ; Familienökonomik ; Theorie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bethmann, Dirk ; Kvasnicka, Michael
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Humboldt University of Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649 - Economic Risk
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2007

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/25185
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET