Mate Selection Power and Female Marital Mortality Differential in China during Transition

Abstract

This paper documents a marked sex difference of the mortality differential between the never married and the married population in China 1990. Different from existing studies made in Western societies, the female never married group is found to experience an atypically larger mortality differential from the married than do males in China. Further, the marital mortality differential of females is found to be greater in contexts of high socioeconomic background. We explain the observed abnormality with theories of mate selection power. Under the Chinese patrilineal family system, females are in part selected into marriage by health criteria and males by resources criteria. In high socioeconomic places, males’ resources produce larger mate selection power, resulting in stronger selectivity on females’ health.