DOI 10.1007/s10818-004-6993-3 Journal of Bioeconomics (2005) 7: 85–98 © Springer 2005 From Libertinism to Marital Commitment: The Economics of Marital Search with Heterogeneous Agents GAELLE LE GUIRRIEC D´ epartement Economie, Reims Management School, 59 rue Pierre Taittinger (BP302), 51061 Reims Cedex, France and Laboratoire d’Economie Publique (3DI-LEP), Universit´ e Paris II-ASSAS, France (gaelle.leguirriec@reims-ms.fr) NICOLAS VAILLANT Laboratoire Economie-Droit-Justice (OMI-EDJ), Universit´ e de Reims, France and Laboratoire d’Economie Publique (3DI-LEP), Universit´ e Paris II-ASSAS, France (nicolas.vaillant@univ-reims.fr) Synopsis: The actual characteristics and desires of candidates for marriage cannot be clearly identified without careful examination (Anderson & Hamori 2000). Accordingly, the classified advertisement sys- tem looks like a ‘market for lemons’ (Akerlof 1970), which sharply contrasts with the matchmaking agency system. The continued existence of classified advertisement system just proves it furthers the goals of certain singles—namely, libertine females and libertine males. The present paper uses two da- tabases: the first database consists of a sample of personal advertisements extracted from a special- ized publication; the second database is the customer file of a matchmaking agency. This paper predicts which variables will determine the commitment level desired by individuals and why matchmaking agen- cies’ customers are more sincere than advertisers. Key words: adverse selection, libertine males and females, matchmaking agency (marriage bureau), personal ads, search for partners 1. Introduction Following the work inspired by Becker’s analysis of marriage and marital search (1973, 1974) (see e.g. Grossbard-Schechtman 1984, 1995, or Bergstrom & Bagnoli 1993), a single person generally expends resources searching in order to find the most ‘suitable’ mate, subject to the constraint that search is costly and that the marriage market is in equilibrium (Keeley 1977). There is a wide variety of formal and infor- mal means of matching marital and relationship partners (Ahuvia & Adelmann 1992). Singles interested in meeting a marital partner through an intermediary are confronted with the decision of either placing an advertisement in a specialized publication or registering with a matchmaking agency (Cameron & Collins 2000). They might assign diverse objectives to their search for a partner. The choice of one of the aforementioned options is thus determined by their objectives. Some