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Title: Does Younger Age at Marriage Affect Divorce? Evidence from Executive Order 11241 and the "Midnight Marriages"
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2017
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Abstract: This paper examines the effect of younger marriages on the likelihood of divorce. Our research design exploits U.S. President Lyndon Johnson’s August 26, 1965, Executive Order eliminating lower priority for married men in the Vietnam draft. A deluge of “midnight marriages” followed. Marriages to draft-eligible men increased by more than 350 percent, reducing men’s average age at marriage by 8 to 10 months and shifting their partner choice. Using the 1980 Census, we next compare the long-term outcomes of men married in the third quarter of 1965 to those married in the same quarter in 1964 or from 1960 to 1970. Consistent with the midnight marriages being determined by idiosyncratic factors, men induced to marry by the policy change were no more likely to attain a college degree or become Vietnam veterans. Our most striking finding is that these midnight marriages—formed hastily and under duress for men ages 19 to 26—were less likely to result in divorce 15 years later. Whereas previous literature has found detrimental effects of very young teen marriages on women, we find little evidence that earlier marriages due to Executive Order 11241 had deleterious effects on men or women.
Url: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~baileymj/Bailey_Beam_Wentz.pdf
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Authors: Bailey, Martha, J; Beam, Emily, A; Wentz, Anna
Publisher: University of Michigan
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Family and Marriage
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