The Role of Online Dating in Intra-couple Gender Equality

Abstract: Online dating has earned a key role in couple formation over the last two decades. This thesis explores gender differences in sorting across online and offline dating markets with a historical dimension, and thereby includes the aspect of development of market environments over time. I focus on intra-couple gender equality characteristics in couples formed in different matching markets. I propose a framework that explains how couple formation may differ in online and offline markets, building on matching market theory and national demographic balance. The framework suggests that participants of otherwise thin markets have the most to gain from using online dating markets, and highly educated women together with less educated men currently face especially thin offline dating markets in the Unites States. I use two nationally representative datasets on US couples and a difference-in-difference approach to empirically test the hypothesis that an online environment further breeds couples with a different type of gender inequality balance, compared to couples formed offline, where females to a greater extent exhibit higher income and educational attainment relative to their partner. The results partly confirm the expected pattern empirically, where sampled couples that met online are more likely to exhibit a female with relatively higher income than her male partner and less likely to exhibit a male with higher income than his female partner, compared to couples that were formed in an offline matching market. The result provides insight regarding the quality of current market design in online dating markets, demographic challenges and intra-generational mobility.