Social Change: The Sexual Revolution

Jeremy Greenwood () and Nezih Guner ()

No 550, RCER Working Papers from University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER)

Abstract: In 1900 only six percent of unwed females engaged in premarital sex. Now, three quarters do. The sexual revolution is studied here using an equilibrium matching model, where the costs of premarital sex fall over time due to technological improvement in contraceptives. Individuals differ in their desire for sex. Given this, people tend to circulate in social groups where prospective partners share their views on premarital sex. To the extent that a society's customs and mores reflect the aggregation of decentralized decision making by its members, shifts in the economic environment may induce changes in what is perceived as culture.

Keywords: Social change; the sexual revolution; technological progress in contraceptives; bilateral search. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E1 J1 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge and nep-evo
Date: 2009-05
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://rcer.econ.rochester.edu/RCERPAPERS/rcer_550.pdf full text (application/pdf)
None

Related works:
Working Paper: Social Change: The Sexual Revolution (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:roc:rocher:550

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in RCER Working Papers from University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER)
Address: UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, CENTER FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH, DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS, HARKNESS 231 ROCHESTER NEW YORK 14627 U.S.A.
Series data maintained by Terry Fisher ().