FSS-DSOC Luncheon Seminar 2025 Fall #3 & Mini-Methods Meeting (M3)

Highly educated young adults increasingly marry late in China, yet their future marriage patterns remain unclear. We conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) with an opt-out option to understand partner preferences of a nationally representative sample of young adults in higher education in China (N = 9,775). Based on the results, we simulated the aggregate distributions of preferred partner attributes and compared these demand-side preferences with supply-side distributions of attributes in the actual unmarried population. Our analysis yields three findings. First, women, individuals who are the only child, and those with better socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to opt out of the choice experiment. Second, highly educated males and females converge in their preferences in some aspects and deviate in others. They both put greater emphasis on partners’ age and physical appearances. Beyond these shared priorities, gender differences emerge: females place greater emphasis on partner’s salary, while males attribute more importance to education and family property. Third, the match and mismatch between demand and supply differ by attributes. We identify substantial deficits in the availability of partners with older age, graduate-level education, and high salaries for both genders. In contrast, a balanced match exists for sibship status.