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HEIGHT, PARTNERS AND OFFSPRING: EVIDENCE FROM TAIWAN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2015

Hung-Lin Tao  and
Ching-Chen Yin
Hung-Lin Tao*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan
Ching-Chen Yin
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan
*
1Corresponding author. Email: hltao@scu.edu.tw
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Summary

Using Taiwanese data, this study finds that tall males are more successful in mate selection and reproduction, but the results are weakly significant. Height is not helpful for females’ reproductive success. Specifically, tall males are more likely to have a partner at present or in the past, have at least one child, have more children, have a shorter period of celibacy and have a longer time duration of living with a partner in their lifetime. Using mediation analysis, the study shows that tall males’ reproductive success is not due to their achievements in the labour market (earnings), but is simply due to their height per se. Finally, a college student data set is used to explore the relation between height and dating hours. Tall male students have more dating hours, but no relation is found between females’ height and dating hours.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 48 , Issue 5 , September 2016 , pp. 593 - 615
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2015 

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