Journal Article

Marrying up: the role of sex ratio in assortative matching

Authors

Publication date

2011

Summary

 We assemble a novel dataset to study the impact of male scarcity onmarital assortative matching and other marriage market outcomesusing the large shock that WWI caused to the number of French men.Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that postwar inregions with higher mortality rates: men were less likely to marrywomen of lower social classes; men were more likely and womenless likely to marry; out-of-wedlock births increased; divorce ratesdecreased; and the age gap decreased. These findings are consistentwith men improving their position in the marriage market as theybecome scarcer.

Published in

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics

Volume and page numbers

3 , 124 -157

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/app.3.3.124

ISSN

16

Links

http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1702560~S5

Notes

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*

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