一個母親的來信 zt

一個母親的來信

My 15-year-old is disinclined to work for her GCSEs, saying her time is better spent preening herself in preparation for assignations with her delightful, diligent, privately educated, moneyed boyfriend. She insists the money spent on nail-painting, hair-colouring and the like is an investment and will be more than repaid when he marries her. Is she deluding herself?

A curious mother

Dear Curious Mother,

Surprising as this may seem in the 21st century, your daughter\'s strategy is not unusual. Evidence on speed-dating gathered by the economists Michèle Belot and Marco Francesconi shows that women are attracted by rich men, while men focus more on a woman\'s physical appearance. Lena Edlund, another economist, has found that in the areas of her native Sweden where the wealthiest men live, women of prime marriageable age are over-represented.

However, your daughter is only 15; for Edlund, “prime marriageable age” is 25-44. Your daughter is either going to have to get her hooks into this chap unusually early, or she is going to have to keep him on the boil for another decade – a lot of nail-painting.

Not only is she concentrating her investments into a single asset by abandoning her education, but she may even be making her main goal harder to achieve. Belot and Francesconi discovered that a strong social trend towards “assortative mating” means that although educated, high-achieving men are not interested in marrying a rich woman, they do like educated high-achieving women, rather than shallow girls with shiny nails.

Your daughter should learn to work hard and look good at the same time. Not only will it advance her immediate goals, it will also – sadly – stand her in good stead for the rest of her life.



我15歲的女兒不願為拿到英國普通中等教育證書(GCSE)而努力學習，稱自己把時間花在穿著打扮上更有意義，為的是與她那個討人喜歡、勤奮、上私立學校的有錢男友約會。她堅稱，花在美甲和染發等方麵的錢是一種投資，在男友迎娶自己時就會獲得更多的回報。她是在欺騙自己嗎？

一位好奇的母親

親愛的好奇母親：

盡管在二十一世紀這種情況可能會非常令人吃驚，但你女兒的策略並不罕見。經濟學家米謝勒•貝洛(Michèle Belot)和馬爾科•弗蘭切斯科尼(Marco Francesconi)收集的有關閃電約會的證據表明，女性受到有錢男性的吸引，而男性更關注女性的容貌。另一位經濟學家萊娜•埃德隆德(Lena Edlund)發現，在其祖國瑞典最富有男士生活的地區，處於最佳適婚年齡的女性比例過高。

不過，你的女兒隻有15歲；在埃德隆德看來，“最佳適婚年齡”是25歲至44歲。你的女兒要麽必須及早把這家夥弄到手，要麽就必須設法讓他保持激情再等上10年——那需要大量的美甲。

她放棄自身教育的結果是，不僅她的投資僅集中於單一的資產，而且甚至可能會讓她的主要目標更加難以實現。貝洛和弗蘭切斯科尼發現，存在一種強烈的“選型交配”社交趨勢，即盡管受過教育的成功男士對與有錢女士結婚不感興趣，但他們確實喜歡受過教育的成功女士，而不是指甲閃亮的淺薄女子。

你的女兒應該學會在努力學習的同時也把自己打扮得漂漂亮亮。這不僅能幫她提前實現當前的目標，而且——遺憾的是——在以後的日子裏都會讓她受益無窮。