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Waiting for Mr Right: Rising Inequality and Declining Marriage Rates

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Author Info
Gould, Eric D
Paserman, Marco Daniele

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Abstract

This Paper demonstrates that women search longer for their first or second husband in cities with higher male wage inequality, and analyses several explanations for this result. A causal link is established by showing that the results are robust to the inclusion of city fixed-effects and city-specific time trends, and by using inequality in the woman’s state of birth as a proxy for the local level of male inequality. Increasing male inequality explains about 30% of the marriage rate decline for women over the last few decades, and we show that this is not due to the effects of male inequality on female inequality, female labour supply, or decisions by women to re-locate, nor to the decisions of men in reaction to changes in their own wages. The evidence supports the idea that higher male inequality increases the option value for single women to search longer for a husband.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 3388.

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Date of creation: May 2002
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:3388

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Related research
Keywords: inequality; marriage; search;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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References listed on IDEAS
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.:
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  21. Raquel Fernández & Richard Rogerson, 2001. "Sorting And Long-Run Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(4), pages 1305-1341, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(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. Dan Anderberg, 2004. "Getting Hitched: The Equilibrium Marriage Market Behaviour of a British Cohort," Royal Holloway, University of London: Discussion Papers in Economics 04/12, Department of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London, revised Jul 2004. [Downloadable!]
  2. Ayako Kondo, 2008. "Female Labor Market Conditions and Family Formation," Discussion Papers 0809-08, Columbia University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2007. "Marriage and Divorce: Changes and their Driving Forces," IZA Discussion Papers 2602, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Avner Ahituv & Robert I. Lerman, 2005. "How Do Marital Status, Wage Rates, and Work Commitment Interact?," IZA Discussion Papers 1688, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  5. Tara Watson & Sara McLanahan, 2009. "Marriage Meets the Joneses: Relative Income, Identity, and Marital Status," NBER Working Papers 14773, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Maristella Botticini & Aloysius Siow, 2008. "Are there Increasing Returns in Marriage Markets?," Working Papers tecipa-333, University of Toronto, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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