The Economic Consequences of Excess Men: Evidence from A Natural Experiment in Taiwan
2012/06/19
研討會日期 : 2012-06-19
時間 : 14:30
主講人 : Professor Simon Chang
地點 : Conference Room B110
演講者簡介 : Siman Chang received his Ph.D. in Economics from Michigan State University in 2009. He is currently serving as Assistant Professor of China Center for Human Capital and Labor Market Research at Central University of Finance and Economics. Her research field is in health economics, labor economics and applied microeconomics.
演講摘要 : In this paper, we use a natural experiment in Taiwan to test the economic consequences of mating competitions. With the defeat of the Kuomintang Party, more than one million of soldiers and civilians, mainly young males, retreated to Taiwan in the late 1940s. Initially, the soldiers from mainland China were not allowed to marry. The ban was relaxed in 1959, suddenly flooding the marriage market with a large number of eligible bachelors. The operational male-to-female ratio at marriageable age peaked at nearly 1.2 in the 1960s. Using data from multiple sources, we find that during times of high marriage competition, young men were more likely to become entrepreneurs, work longer hours, save more, and amass more assets. The findings highlight the important role of biological force in shaping human economic behavior.
