Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/30703 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 2940
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
This paper examines how marital and fertility patterns have changed along racial and educational lines for men and women. Historically, women with more education have been the least likely to marry and have children, but this marriage gap has eroded as the returns to marriage have changed. Marriage and remarriage rates have risen for women with a college degree relative to women with fewer years of education. However, the patterns of, and reasons for, marriage have changed. College educated women marry later, have fewer children, are less likely to view marriage as financial security, are happier in their marriages and with their family life, and are not only the least likely to divorce, but have had the biggest decrease in divorce since the 1970s compared to women without a college degree. In contrast, there have been fewer changes in marital patterns by education for men.
Subjects: 
marriage
divorce
fertility
education
JEL: 
J10
J11
J12
J13
J15
J16
I20
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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