After death

In rural China families demand that husbands and wives should always be buried together. I said always.

The fact that some men die before finding their soulmates isn't obstacle enough to deter the traditionalism of these conservative families. After all, these hard working young men (most of them fatal victims in coal mining accidents) deserve to enjoy the pleasures of marriage, even when they are no longer among the living.

So these families see no problem in ordering "corpse brides" to be buried with their beloved and unmarried relatives. These corpses are robbed from their graves and then transfered to the groom's place.

But supply and demand can sometimes be malign.

As more and more young men died in coal mining accidents, corpse bride prices skyrocketed. Such incentives prompted not only grave robbing, but also murders in order to meet demand. That, my friend, is the real freakonomics.