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The Western European marriage pattern and economic development

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  • Foreman-Peck, James

Abstract

For several centuries before the First World War women's age at first marriage in the west of Europe was higher than in the east (and in the rest of the world). In their low mortality regimes Western Europeans chose lower fertility in part through a higher female age at marriage. This allowed women to increase their human capital both formally and informally in the years before child bearing so that more informed mothers brought up better educated offspring. The demographic pattern influenced the stock of human capital and directly contributed to Western Europe's development advantage. The predicted relations of this economic model of the household are tested with two datasets, one at the county level for England for the second half of the nineteenth century and the other at the national level for Europe 1870-1910.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Explorations in Economic History.

Volume (Year): 48 (2011)
Issue (Month): 2 (April)
Pages: 292-309

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Handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:48:y:2011:i:2:p:292-309

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622830

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Keywords: Human capital Household production Economic development 19th century Europe;

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References

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Cited by:
  1. Nico Voigtländer & Joachim Voth, 2008. "How the West "invented" fertility restriction," Economics Working Papers 1264, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Dec 2012.
  2. Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2011. "The Preventive Check in Medieval and Pre-industrial England," Working Papers 201110, School Of Economics, University College Dublin.
  3. Brezis, Elise S., 2010. "Can demographic transition only be explained by altruistic and neo-Malthusian models?," The Journal of Socio-Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 233-240, April.
  4. Dincecco, Mark & Katz, Gabriel, 2012. "State Capacity and Long-Run Performance," MPRA Paper 38299, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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