When Work Disappears: Manufacturing Decline and the Falling Marriage Market Value of Young Men

Arbeitspapier

We exploit the gender-specific components of large-scale labor demand shocks stemming from rising international manufacturing competition to test how shifts in the relative economic stature of young men versus young women affected marriage, fertility and children’s living circumstances during 1990-2014. On average, trade shocks differentially reduce employment and earnings of young adult males. Consistent with Becker’s model of household specialization, shocks to male’s relative earnings reduce marriage and fertility. Consistent with prominent sociological accounts, these shocks heighten male idleness and premature mortality, and raise the share of mothers who are unwed and the share of children living in below-poverty, single-headed households.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 7010

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Trade and Labor Market Interactions ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure ; Labor Demand
• Subject: marriage market ; fertility ; mortality ; household structure ; single-parent families ; trade flows ; import competition ; local labor markets

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Autor, David H. ; Dorn, David ; Hanson, Gordon H.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2018

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/180272
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET