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More choice for men? Marriage patterns after World War II in Italy

Author

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  • Battistin, Erich
  • Becker, Sascha O.
  • Nunziata, Luca

Abstract

We investigate how changes in the sex ratio induced by World War II affected the bargaining patterns of Italian men in the marriage market. Marriage data from the first wave of the Italian Household Longitudinal Survey (1997) are matched with newly digitized information on war casualties coming from the Italian National Bureau of Statistics. We find that men in post-war marriages were better off in terms of their spouse's education, this gain amounting to about half a year of schooling. By considering heterogeneity across provinces, we find that the effects were more pronounced in rural provinces, mountainous provinces, and provinces with a higher share of population employed in agriculture. This result suggests that in these provinces the war caused a more fundamental change in marriage patterns compared to urban, lower-lying, and less agricultural provinces where marriage markets might have been more flexible to begin with.

Suggested Citation

  • Battistin, Erich & Becker, Sascha O. & Nunziata, Luca, 2022. "More choice for men? Marriage patterns after World War II in Italy," Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 88(3), pages 447-472, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:demeco:v:88:y:2022:i:3:p:447-472_7
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    Cited by:

    1. Braun, Sebastian T. & Stuhler, Jan, 2024. "The economic consequences of being widowed by war: A life-cycle perspective," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    2. Rafael González‐Val & Javier Silvestre, 2023. "War and city size: The asymmetric effects of the Spanish Civil War," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(4), pages 898-921, September.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-

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