The value of youth: equalizing age differentials in marriages.

The objective of this paper is to present a model of constrained utility-maximizing behavior which is able to explain several features of marriage. The model predicts that individuals meet in the marriage market and trade characteristics, in which they are relatively well endowed, to obtain characteristics in which they are less well endowed. The model implies a positive age differential in favor of the husband due to biological differences. This differential is shown to be attenuated by differences in earnings capacity and human capital investments. The model also has implications for dynamic aspects of marriage and provides an explanation for the secular increase in females' age of first marriage and the difficulty experienced by females in the post thirty-year age group in finding suitable partners. An examination of unit record data on residents of metropolitan California from the 1980 United States Census reveals systematic patterns in the data are consistent with the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]