Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36249 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4446
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper documents that changes in assortative mating patterns over the last four decades along the dimensions of age, ethnicity and religion are not responsible for the increasing marital stability in Austria. Quite the contrary, without the rise in the age at marriage, divorce rates would be considerably higher. Immigration and secularization, and the resulting supply of spouses with diverse ethnicity and religious denominations had no overall effect on divorce rates. Countervailing effects - in line with theoretical predictions - offset each other. The rise in the incidence in divorce is most probably caused by changing social norms.
Subjects: 
Assortative mating
divorce
marital instability
immigration
JEL: 
J12
J11
J15
Z12
D1
R2
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
496.23 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.