Gender contrasts in partner supply: marriage market estimates and their implications

Marriage market estimates by sex and single years of age are made for the US and England and Wales in 1990-1991, using explicit data on age preferences. Availability is strongly differentiated by age and sex, being inversely associated with female age and positively with male age. Decomposition shows that young women are advantaged largely by age preferences while older men are advantaged by population age-sex and marital status structure. Most men marry at ages when partners are in short supply; this finding is examined in detail. Some implications for gender power relations through the life course are considered