Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/73626 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 0910
Publisher: 
Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Department of Economics, Linz
Abstract: 
This paper documents that changes in assortative mating patterns over the last four decades along the dimensions of age, ethnicity, religion and education are not responsible for the increasing marital instability 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
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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