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Title: Impacts of Changes in Marriage Law: Implications for Fertility and Educational Attainment of Women
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2009
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Abstract: In 1957 the state of Mississippi amended its marriage law. Changes included raising theminimum age for men and women, parental consent requirements, compulsory blood tests and proofof age. As a result, the number of marriages performed in Mississippi fell by more than 60 percentin 2 years. This paper examines the causal impact of the change in marriage law on marriage rates,fertility and educational attainment of women who were affected by the change in law. After thepassage of the law, marriage rates declined sharply, and as a result, fertility declined and educationalattainment increased. The results are much stronger for blacks than for whites. The black marriagerate among 19-23 year old women in the affected states declined by around 14% over that of thedecline in the unaffected states. Black women in this age group also had 0.3 fewer children, and hada 9% higher probability of being enrolled in school. In addition, black women affected by the lawchange obtained nearly an extra year of schooling as compared to black women not affected by thislaw change. Among whites, the results are qualitatively similar, though weaker in magnitude andstatistical significance. Hence, barriers to marriage can have significant implications for reducingfertility and increasing educational attainment of women.
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Authors: Bharadwaj, Prashant
Publisher: University of California, San Diego
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Family and Marriage
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