American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Making Yourself Attractive: Pre-marital Investments and the Returns to Education in the Marriage Market
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 5,
no. 2, April 2013
(pp. 151–78)
Abstract
I explore how a gender's scarcity may impact educational investments using exogenous variation in the marriage market of second generation Americans in early twentieth century. I find that worse marriage market conditions spur higher pre-marital investments: the effect for males is significant, while, for females, it is only observed in highly endogamous groups. When faced with an exogenously larger number of males per females, males' marriages appear to be less stable and more likely to involve natives and highly educated spouses, while women are less likely to work and, for those in high endogamous groups, marry more immigrants. (JEL C78, D83, J12, J16, N31)Citation
Lafortune, Jeanne. 2013. "Making Yourself Attractive: Pre-marital Investments and the Returns to Education in the Marriage Market." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5 (2): 151–78. DOI: 10.1257/app.5.2.151Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- C78 Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief
- J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- N31 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
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