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Title: A Search Model of Marriage with Differential Fertility am specially indebted to

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2003

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Abstract: It is commonly observed that over time and across societies, women tend to marry older men. The traditional explanation for this phenomenon is that wages increase with age and hence older men are more attractive in the marriage market. This explanation, however, involves an implicit assumption about female specialization in home production-an assumption that does not completely hold, especially in modern times. This paper shows that a marriage market equilibrium where women marry earlier in life than men can be achieved without making any assumptions about the wage process or gender roles. The only driving force in this model is the asymmetry in fertility horizons between men and women. When the model is calibrated with Census Data, the average age at first marriage and the pattern of the sex ratio of single men to single women over different age groups mimics the patterns observed in developed countries during the last decade (e.g. France, the U.S. and Sweden). JEL Classification: J12, D83

Url: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.217.3980&rep=rep1&type=pdf

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Authors: Giolito, Eugenio P

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage, Fertility and Mortality

Countries: United States