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How Do Sex Ratios Affect Marriage And Labor Markets? Evidence From America'S Second Generation

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Josh Angrist

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Abstract

Sex ratios, i.e., relative numbers of men and women, can affect marriage prospects, labor force participation, and other social and economic variables. But the observed association between sex ratios and social and economic conditions may be confounded by omitted variables and reverse causality. This paper uses variation in immigrant flows as a natural experiment to study the effect of sex ratios on the children and grandchildren of immigrants. The flow of immigrants affected the second-generation marriage market because second-generation marriages were mostly endogamous, i.e., to members of the same ethnic group. The empirical results suggest that high sex ratios had a large positive effect on the likelihood of female marriage, and a large negative effect on female labor force participation. Perhaps surprisingly, the marriage rates of second-generation men appear to be a slightly increasing function of immigrant sex ratios. Higher sex ratios also appear to have raised male earnings and the incomes of parents with young children. The empirical results are broadly consistent with theories where higher sex ratios increase female bargaining power in the marriage market. "There's a shortage of men, so [the men] think, 'I can have more than one woman. I'm gonna go around to this one or that one, and I'm gonna have two or three of them." (A single Philadelphia mother describes her local marriage market; quoted in Edin [2000]). "Every day I meet someone better. I am waiting for the best." (A female Moroccan immigrant describes her local marriage market; quoted in Rodriguez [2000]). © 2001 the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Article provided by MIT Press in its journal The Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Volume (Year): 117 (2002)
Issue (Month): 3 (August)
Pages: 997-1038
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Handle: RePEc:tpr:qjecon:v:117:y:2002:i:3:p:997-1038

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  1. Berman, Eli, 1997. "Help Wanted, Job Needed: Estimates of a Matching Function from Employment Service Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages S251-92, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Rao, Vijayendra, 1993. "The Rising Price of Husbands: A Hedonic Analysis of Dowry Increases in Rural India," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(4), pages 666-77, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Esther Duflo, 2000. "Grandmothers and Granddaughters: Old Age Pension and Intra-household Allocation in South Africa," NBER Working Papers 8061, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Michael R. Haines, 1996. "Long Term Marriage Patterns in the United States from Colonial Times tothe Present," NBER Historical Working Papers 0080, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Becker, Gary S, 1973. "A Theory of Marriage: Part I," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(4), pages 813-46, July-Aug.. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Moulton, Brent R., 1986. "Random group effects and the precision of regression estimates," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 385-397, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Josh Angrist, 2000. "Consequences of Imbalanced Sex Ratios: Evidence from America's Second Generation," NBER Working Papers 8042, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Chiswick, Barry R, 1977. "Sons of Immigrants: Are They at an Earnings Disadvantage?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(1), pages 376-80, February.
  9. Chiappori, Pierre-André & Fortin, Bernard & Lacroix, Guy, 2001. "Marriage Market, Divorce Legislation and Household Labor Supply," Cahiers de recherche 0103, Université Laval - Département d'économique. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Thomas, D., 1989. "Intra-Household Resource Allocation: An Inferential Approach," Papers 586, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
  11. Freiden, Alan, 1974. "The United States Marriage Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages S34-S53, Part II, . [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Alexis León, 2006. "Does Ethnic Capital Matter? Identifying the Role of Ethnic Peer Effects in the Intergenerational Transmission of Ethnic Differentials," Working Papers 289, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2006. [Downloadable!]
  2. Michael Svarer, 2006. "Working late: Do Workplace Sex Ratios Affect Partnership Formation and Dissolution?," Economics Working Papers 2006-09, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Cheolsung Park, 2004. "Marriage Market, Parents' Bargaining Powers, and Children's Education," Econometric Society 2004 Far Eastern Meetings 573, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
  4. repec:ese:iserwp: is not listed on IDEAS
  5. Libertad González, 2006. "The Effect of Benefits on Single Motherhood in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 2026, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  6. Shannon N. Seitz, 2002. "Accounting for Racial Differences in Marriage and Employment," Working Papers 1009, Queen's University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  7. Xin Meng & Dominique Meurs, 2006. "Intermarriage, Language, and Economic Assimilation Process: A Case Study of France," IZA Discussion Papers 2461, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  8. Delia Furtado, 2006. "Human Capital and Interethnic Marriage Decisions," IZA Discussion Papers 1989, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Benjamin Bridgman, 2008. "What Does the Atlas Narodov Mira Measure?," Economics Bulletin, Economics Bulletin, vol. 10(6), pages 1-8. [Downloadable!]
  10. Qian, Nancy, 2006. "Missing Women and the Price of Tea in China: The Effect of Sex-Specific Earnings on Sex Imbalance," CEPR Discussion Papers 5986, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Cheolsung Park, 2004. "Marriage Market, Parents' Bargaining Powers, and Children's Nutrition and Education," Econometric Society 2004 Australasian Meetings 262, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2005. "Gender and Assimilation Among Mexican Americans," NBER Working Papers 11512, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Helena Skyt Nielsen & Nina Smith & Aycan Celikaksoy, 2007. "The Effect of Marriage on Education of Immigrants: Evidence from a Policy Reform Restricting Spouse Import," IZA Discussion Papers 2899, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. Benjamin Bridgman, . "Why Are Ethnically Divided Countries Poor?," Departmental Working Papers 2003-11, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Bruce Sacerdote, 2002. "Slavery and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital," NBER Working Papers 9227, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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