The Effects of bride price on the Chinese marriage market

Abstract

This paper will mainly focus on the marriage market of China and how bride price affects it through diverse methods like analyzing the amount of bride price in different parts of China, using the economics models including demand and supply curve and the indifference curves to figure out whether bride price will affect the marriage rate, and finally developing a theory to depict a females’ psychological and economics evaluation on whether a male is worth marrying. The author finds that if the bride price is too high, then it will negatively affect the marriage rate. The bride price will also affect some of the females’ decisions in choosing their lifestyles. However, for more educated women, the theory suggests that the bride price is no longer the most important factor in their marriage decision.