The Eligible-Bachelor Paradox

hereAtlantic story urges) to "settle." If you're inclined to do that, approach with care. Game theory deals with how best to win the prize, but it works only when you can decide what's worth winning.

BM

I don't buy it.

These days marriage is not as valuable to men as it was. Single men gain fewer advantages by marrying then before... so there is not much pressure on men to marry. I don't think men settling for "less valuable" women is a factor-- my observations are consistent with this.


I propose the real phenomenon is that in general men marry younger women. Couples where the woman is older than the man have always been rare.

Let's consider a woman who was born in 1970. She likely will end up coupled with a man born in 1965 (or before). Of course there are fewer men born in 1965 then women born in 1970 (due to population increase).

So in each mating cohort (on average older men and younger women).... there are more women than men. This means after the "desirable" men are taken there will still be some "desirable" women left over.

I attribute this to the age shift in mating couples.

Does this belong in the Mathematics forum?