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Title: Pricing the Biological Clock: Reproductive Capital on the US Marriage Market

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2014

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Abstract: Women's ability to have children declines sharply with age. This fecundity loss may nega-tively affect marital prospects for women who delay marriage to make career investments. To test this, I implement an incentive-compatible online experiment where age is randomly assigned to dating profiles. I find that men have strong preferences for younger partners, but only when they have no children of their own and are aware of the age–fertility tradeoff. I then incorporate depreciating " reproductive capital " into a marriage matching model with optional human capi-tal investments. The model predicts potentially worse marriage market outcomes for educated women, matching historical data. JEL Codes: C78, D10, I26, J12, J13, J16 Women's ability to conceive children falls off rapidly around age 40. This decline in fecundity has

Url: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f294/de4f8008a5094119c0ae85c496ff1e89959b.pdf

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Authors: Low, Corinne

Publisher: Columbia University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Fertility and Mortality

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