“Wealth spawns gold-digger boom.”
Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2007

Now and then, the dismal science of economics produces a case study more appropriate for the National Enquirer than the Wall Street Journal. Nevertheless, the venerable media institution reported this month that the booming economy in recent years has produced a secondary boom in gold-digging, that timeless practice of marrying for money.

The Journal summarizes a survey by Prince & Associates that reveals some telling statistics of this age of “bling bling”:

"Fully two-thirds of women and half of the men said they were "very" or "extremely" willing to marry for money. The answers varied by age: Women in their 30s were the most likely to say they would marry for money (74%) while men in their 20s were the least likely (41%)."

However, men appear to warm to the idea as they age, as “...61% of men in their 40s said they would marry for money.”
There is a demographic story to tell here. As in so many other “economic” decisions, gold-digging behavior varies by age. Just as one’s preferences in cars, homes, and fashion changes over a person’s life cycle, so does the willingness and the “price” of marrying for money.

The Journal continues: "Asked how much a potential spouse would need to have to be money-marriage material, women in their 20s said $2.5 million. The going rate fell to $1.1 million for women in their 30s, and rose again to $2.2 million for women in their 40s. Prince & Associates attributes the fluctuation to the assumption that thirty-something women feel more pressure to get married than women in their 20s, so they are willing to lower the price. By their 40s, women are more comfortable being independent, so they're willing to hold out for more cash."

"Men have cheaper requirements. In the Prince survey, their asking price overall was $1.2 million, with men in their 20s asking $1 million and men in their 40s asking $1.4 million."

The conventional wisdom that men are cheaper dates appears to hold up to statistical scrutiny in this case. Men also appear to be more complacent than women: "Among the women in their twenties who said they would marry for money, 71% said they expected to get divorced -- the highest of any demographic. Only 27% of men in their 40s expected to divorce."

So, younger women are the most likely to “trade up” to a new spouse or to take the money and use it for other career or personal objectives, while middle-aged men appear to be content to kick back and enjoy the gravy train.

Not shockingly, the boom in gold digging has been accompanied by what was perhaps the greatest multi-year boom in luxury spending in history. Louis Vuitton and Tiffany’s have been among the brands enjoying brisk sales, as have luxury automakers and home furnishings and even high-end electronics.

Greed has always been a prime motivator of human activity, and this is not likely to change with the seasons of the economy. However, effective gold digging might get much harder when we enter the long economic winter that anticipate in the next decade. During a prolonged economic slump, men and women who work hard for their riches may be a little less generous in giving it away to new spouses in the form of extravagant and conspicuous luxury items. The would-be gold diggers will also probably find a lot less gold to dig, as richer Americans are the ones with the most to lose in the next major bear market in stocks and housing.