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arXiv · 2605.10060

Skill Premia and Pre-Marital Investments in Marriage Markets

Aditya Kuvalekar
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Abstract

I study a decentralized marriage market with search frictions, costly pre-marital skill investments, and non-transferable utility. Despite a fully symmetric environment, asymmetric equilibria -- in which one gender systematically invests more in skills than the other -- can arise. The match payoffs are microfounded through a non-cooperative household game in which spouses allocate time between labor-market work and domestic production. An asymmetric equilibrium becomes available precisely as the high-skill wage rises. Further, the symmetric equilibria can be fragile while the asymmetric ones are not. Thus, rising skill premia may amplify rather than narrow gender gaps in skill acquisition.

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Aditya Kuvalekar. 2026-06-11. Skill Premia and Pre-Marital Investments in Marriage Markets. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.10060

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