As has occurred in many developed countries, Taiwanese women have gradually become more highly educated and increasingly participated in the labor market. Consequently, Taiwanese women are becoming more independent and are choosing not to get married. As a result, more Taiwanese men have married women from mainland China and Southeast Asian countries. This study contributes to this interesting topic by investigating the happiness of immigrant wives in Taiwan. Special attention is paid to the role of bargaining power plays in immigrant wives’ happiness. A nationwide survey of 10,153 immigrant wives in 2008 and a two-stage econometric regression framework were used in this study; the results show that the socio-demographic characteristics of the immigrant wives and their Taiwanese husbands are significantly associated with the immigrant wives’ bargaining power and happiness. Immigrant wives with greater bargaining power are happier. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Bargaining power Immigrant wives Taiwan

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