Time: 2:30PM – 3:30PM, Tuesday, April 23

Venue: LIB 2113

Speaker: Lingwei Wu, Assistant Professor in Economics, Fudan University

Host: Wumeng He, Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics, Duke Kunshan University

Speaker’s bio: Lingwei Wu is an Assistant Professor at Fudan University. Her research interests cover development economics, economic history, and economics of family and gender.

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of zodiac compatibility on spousal matching in China, a traditional belief system that predicts a couple’s compatibility with three types — the good, the bad, and the neutral. First, using observational data from the population census, we examine the impact of zodiac compatibility on observed marital frequency using a reduced-form analysis. The results show that couples with a bad compatibility type are significantly less prevalent than those with a neutral type. Second, using an incentivized online survey experiment, we further examine the individual preferences on spousal matching regarding zodiac compatibility. The findings show that people prefer to comply with the good compatibility type and avoid the bad compatibility type. The two sets of analyses thus consistently reveal the salience of zodiac compatibility in spousal matching.