A Study of Marriage Squeeze in Selected Asian Countries

Ranjana Kesarwani, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Gender imbalance in the marriage market is commonly known as marriage squeeze, it can be either for male or female. The present study is based on India, China and Korea only. The reason behind the selection is that these typical countries are facing very much distorted sex ratio at birth due to sex determination test and sex selective abortions which are affecting sex ratio at birth (SRB). Also it is seen that SRB is an important factor affecting the marriage market, thus in this context present study is trying to capture the levels and trends of marriage squeeze for the period 2000-2050, also trying to get the association between SRB and marriage squeeze. Analysis shows that if fertility and mortality condition will remain same in future then these countries will face high male marriage squeeze. Whereas improvement in SRB might be help to balance marriage market up to some extent.