Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/130354 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9671
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We document that, over the 20th century, age at first marriage followed a U-shaped pattern, while the gender education gap tracked an inverted-U path in the United States. To explain this, we propose a multi-period frictionless matching model where educational and marriage decisions are endogenous. Two key assumptions are made: marriage requires a fixed cost and married couples cannot study simultaneously. This simple model can replicate the aforementioned stylized facts and is consistent with our empirical result that exogenous delays in marriage age caused by minimum age laws decreased the educational difference within a couple while increasing their educational attainment.
Subjects: 
timing
marriage
education
JEL: 
J12
J11
N32
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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