Women's education and family behavior: Trends in marriage, divorce and fertility

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines how marital and fertility patterns have changed along racial and educational lines for men and women. Historically, women with more education have been the least likely to marry and have children, but this marriage gap has eroded as the returns to marriage have changed. Marriage and remarriage rates have risen for women with a college degree relative to women with fewer years of education. However, the patterns of, and reasons for, marriage have changed. College educated women marry later, have fewer children, are less likely to view marriage as financial security, are happier in their marriages and with their family life, and are not only the least likely to divorce, but have had the biggest decrease in divorce since the 1970s compared to women without a college degree. In contrast, there have been fewer changes in marital patterns by education for men.

Show object

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 2940

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Demographic Economics: General ; Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Education and Research Institutions: General
• Subject: marriage ; divorce ; fertility ; education ; Ehe ; Scheidung ; Frauenbildung ; Bildungsniveau ; Fruchtbarkeit ; Familiensoziologie ; USA

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Isen, Adam ; Stevenson, Betsey
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2010

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/30703