ABSTRACT
This paper deals with one particular valuable quality which can enhance individual success at work, in politics, or in marriage, namely virtue or trustworthiness. The theoiy derives a demand for virtue by employers, a supply of virtue by workers, and integrates demand and supply in a market for seemingly virtuous workers. Special attention is devoted to marriage as seemingly virtuous behavior, and more hypotheses are derived regarding marital differentials in earnings. Among the major insights of this market model of virtue are a new interpretation of the value of age, individual investment in virtue, and the value of making virtue general rather than specific.
