A new study finds that our financial behavior varies depending on the gender ratio:
The perception that women are scarce leads men to become impulsive, save less, and increase borrowing.
Marina Adshade complicates the theory:
Women might be impressed with high levels of conspicuous consumption in short term relationships, but for long term relationships that conspicuous consumption doesn’t matter if the suitor is just accumulating debt as a result. What matters for long-term commitment is wealth.
Anna North examines international trends:
[Researchers] note that in America, cities with more men have higher consumer debt: "as men become more abundant in populations, American consumers desire access to immediate rewards." In China, the opposite appears to be true — places with a big surplus of men also have higher savings rates. Griskevicius et al think that might be because Chinese men need to save up for a "bride price" to pay the parents of their betrothed, and these bride prices tend to be higher when women are scarcer — "whereas men in one culture may tend to invest in mating effort by saving money for a one-time expenditure (bride price), men in another culture may tend to invest in mating effort by increasing immediate spending on courtship and mate competition."
Rupa Subramanya looks at how a similar phenomenon is playing out in India:
[In 2005, the state government of Haryana] launched a campaign popularly known as “No Toilet, No Bride,” which aimed to persuade women and their families that they should not marry a prospective groom unless they have or install a private latrine. The fact that this occurred in Haryana is significant given that along with neighboring Punjab, it has the one of the most skewed sex ratios in the country at 877 girls for 1,000 boys.
The Dish 