Label the divorced : a repeated-game analysis on (re)marriage market with community enforcement

Abstract

I study the marriage and remarriage market in a repeated-game framework with potentially alternating partners. I show that introducing marital labels by a credible institution can improve social efficiency by limiting inefficient punishment on divorced singles. With the presence of marital labels, the most efficient centralized matching protocol is to arrange as many bachelor-divorced marriage as possible. I also characterize the equilibrium behavior for a decentralized society where marital status are observable. Welfare comparison across social institutions with different degrees of pre-marriage labels transparency is conducted.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology