JSM 2004 - Toronto

Abstract #300443

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Activity Number: 340
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
Abstract - #300443
Title: Successful Self-representation in Cyberspace: Evidence on Russian Brides from an Internet Marriage Agency
Author(s): Padma Rao Sahib*+ and Ruud Koning and Arjen van Witteloostuijn
Companies: University of Groningen and University of Groningen and University of Groningen
Address: , , ,
Keywords: mail-order brides ; probit models ; personal advertisements
Abstract:

We investigate the factors associated with success in a specialized marriage market. This marriage market is generated by a marriage agency that arranges meetings between women from the former Soviet Union and men from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. It is the modern version of the mail-order bride industry that has successfully migrated to the Internet. Russian women seek partners by providing profiles of themselves on a web site. Success in this market is defined as being able to find a suitable match culminating in engagement or marriage. We analyze data on profiles of two groups of Russian women using probit models. One group consists of single women who seek partners while and the other is a sample of women who have successfully found a partner via this method. By comparing such profiles, we are able to identify the factors associated with success in this marriage market. We find that stated personal qualities make little difference. However, women reporting lower weight are more likely to find a partner than women who report higher weight.

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