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How Do Sex Ratios Affect Marriage and Labor Markets? Evidence from America's Second Generation

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Author Info
Angrist, Joshua () (Department of Economics, MIT and IZA, Bonn)

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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.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 368.

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Length: 55 pages
Date of creation: Sep 2001
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp368

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Related research
Keywords: Household and family models immigration family structure

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
N32 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Income, and Wealth - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

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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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    Other versions:
  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)
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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)
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    Other versions:
  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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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. 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:
  2. 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)
  3. repec:ese:iserwp: is not listed on IDEAS
  4. 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!]
  5. 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!]
  6. Delia Furtado, 2006. "Human Capital and Interethnic Marriage Decisions," IZA Discussion Papers 1989, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Benjamin Bridgman, 2008. "What Does the Atlas Narodov Mira Measure?," Economics Bulletin, Economics Bulletin, vol. 10(6), pages 1-8. [Downloadable!]
  8. Libertad González, 2006. "The Effect of Benefits on Single Motherhood in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 2026, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Shannon N. Seitz, 2002. "Accounting for Racial Differences in Marriage and Employment," Working Papers 1009, Queen's University, Department of Economics. [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. 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:
  12. 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:
  13. Cheolsung Park, 2004. "Marriage Market, Parents' Bargaining Powers, and Children's Education," Econometric Society 2004 Far Eastern Meetings 573, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
  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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