Income Prospects and Age-at-Marriage

This paper provides an empirical investigation of a theoretical model of the marriage market. In the model, women are valued more for their ability to bear children and men are valued more for their ability to make money. Men cannot reveal their labor market ability to potential spouses until they e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of population economics 1996-05, Vol.9 (2), p.115-130
Main Authors: Bergstrom, Ted, Schoeni, Robert F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Americas
Behavior
Black white relations
Constant coefficients
Demography
Developed Countries
Earned income
Economics
Employment
Family income
Family structure
Fertility
Health Manpower
Human capital
Income
Income distribution
Income estimates
Income expectations
Labor markets
Marriage
Men
Models, Theoretical
North America
Population
Population Characteristics
Population economics
Psychology
Reproduction
Sex Factors
Single status
Social Values
Socioeconomic Factors
United States
White people
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Summary:This paper provides an empirical investigation of a theoretical model of the marriage market. In the model, women are valued more for their ability to bear children and men are valued more for their ability to make money. Men cannot reveal their labor market ability to potential spouses until they enter the labor force. At the same time, the relevant information for evaluating females as spouses is revealed at a younger age. The model predicts that the income of males will be positively associated with age-at-first-marriage. We find empirical support for the model. However, we also find the association between male earnings and age-at-first-marriage becomes negative for those who married after age 30, which was not predicted by the model. Consistent with the model, we do not find a strong relationship between earnings and age-at-first-marriage among females.
ISSN:0933-1433
1432-1475
DOI:10.1007/PL00003834