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Changing the Price of Marriage: Evidence from Blood Test Requirements

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Author Info
Kasey S. Buckles
Melanie E. Guldi
Joseph Price

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Abstract

We use state repeals of blood test requirements for a marriage license that occurred between 1980 and 2005 to examine the impact of changes in the price of marriage on the marriage decision. Using a within-group estimator that holds constant state and year effects and exploits variation in the repeal dates of BTRs across states, we find that BTRs are associated with a 5.7% decrease in marriage licenses issued by a state. Using individual-level marriage license data from 1981-1995, we find that about half of this effect is due to couples seeking marriage licenses in other states, with the other half is due to deterred marriages. We also examine the marital status of mothers using birth certificate and Current Population Survey data, and find that blood test requirements reduce the fraction of first-time mothers who are married at the time of birth. The marriage-deterrent effects of BTRs are larger for lower socio-economic groups.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 15161.

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Date of creation: Jul 2009
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15161

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
K36 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Family and Personal Law

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This page was last updated on 2009-12-8.

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