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Title: Lifecycle marital matching with preference and demographic shocks: Theory and evidence

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2005

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Abstract: The marriage market is a dynamic bilateral matching market with demographic andpreference shocks. This paper proposes a behavioral model of the marriage market that gen-erates a non-parametric dynamic marriage matching function which is easy to estimate. Themodel is estimated with US data for three time intervals from 1970 to 1984 on the bivariatedistributions of spousal ages at marriage. The estimated model is used to test a separablespousal contribution model of marital output where positive assortative matching by spousalages is generated by the accumulation of marriage specic capital. The separable spousalcontribution model ts the data well. The estimated subjective divorce rates underestimateactual divorce rates. Individuals perceived that their personal divorce risk, although small,have risen over time. The observed drop in the marriage rates of young adults is primarilyattributable to the fall in the relative contributions of young adults in marriage and not dueto a fall in the value of marriage specic capital.

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Authors: Choo, Eugene; Siow, Aloysius

Publisher: University of California, Berkeley

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Family and Marriage, Other

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