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Title: Who married, (to) whom, and where? Trends in marriage in the United States, 1850-1940
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2018
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Abstract: This paper presents a novel analysis about marriage in the United States in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, and its relation to socioeconomic status. We document the following facts: 1) Already in the mid-19 th Century there was a socioeconomic gradient in marriage rates-men and women born to families in the bottom quartile of the occupational earnings distribution were more likely to marry than those in the top quartile. The gradient had grown steeper by the middle of the 20 th Century. 2) The increase in gradient is explained in part by increased income divergence across U.S. regions, together with a regional gradient in marriage rates, and by an increased socioeconomic gradient within regions. 3) Age at marriage follows an inverted U-shape, and exhibits both a socioeconomic and a regional gradient. Both gradients become steeper over time. 4) There is a substantial increase in the degree of assortativeness by socioeconomic status over this period. This is accounted for in about equal measure by regional income divergence, and increased assortativeness within regions. 5) The mean age gap between spouses also declines over time but it explains very little of the change in assortativeness by socioeconomic status. The overall picture is one of a society that was becoming more segmented along the marriage dimension. This increased segmentation is explained only in part by income divergence across geographic regions.
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Authors: Olivetti, Claudia; Paserman, M Daniele; Salisbury, Laura; Weber, E Anna
Publisher: Boston College and NBER
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Family and Marriage, Other
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