Love search strategy with dynamic programming

Abstract

This paper extends the famous secretary problem in the context of the Chinese cultural phenomenon of sheng nu or leftover women. We use dynamic programming to investigate the impact of love search strategies on optimal stopping decisions under time pressure. Our results suggest that time pressure has negative impact on the quality of the match. When there is no time pressure, remaining single may be the optimal decision. Finally, the environment matters — searchers reasonably have higher expectations when the average quality of suitors in a marriage pool is higher.