On strategy and the likelihood of success in marital matchmaking under uncertainty

Individuals wishing to get married have made increasing use of matchmakers. This notwithstanding, economists have paid scant attention to the strategies employed by matchmakers and to the likelihood of success arising from the use of these strategies. Consequently, we first specify a “local” and then a “global” strategy for matching male and female clients and then we compute the expected total cost to a matchmaker from the use of these strategies. Next, we calculate the mean number of successes that our matchmaker can hope for. Finally, we provide an upper bound on the probability that the number of matching successes is at least 1+ ̧ times the mean number, where ̧ is any positive number. This paper is dedicated to the memory of A.N. Batabyal (1937−2002). Batabyal thanks the Gosnell endowment at RIT for financial support. The usual disclaimer applies. Citation: Batabyal, Amitrajeet, (2004) "On strategy and the likelihood of success in marital matchmaking under uncertainty." Economics Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 7 pp. 1−7 Submitted: July 27, 2004. Accepted: September 2, 2004. URL: http://www.economicsbulletin.com/2004/volume10/EB−04J00001A.pdf 1 In the rest of this paper, we suppose that our matchmaker is a single male individual. Even so, we recognize that the matchmaker may be a single female individual or even a firm. In this regard, the point to note is that except for minor stylistic changes, nothing in our analysis is altered by accounting for these last two possibilities. 2 See the “Personals” section of the New York Times, the Boston Globe and internet sites such as www.Udate.com and www.match.com 1