Making Yourself Attractive: Pre-marital Investments and the Returns to Education in the Marriage Market

Jeanne Lafortune

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2013, vol. 5, issue 2, 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)

JEL-codes: C78 D83 J12 J16 N31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.5.2.151
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (102)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Making Yourself Attractive: Pre-Marital Investments and the Returns to Education in the Marriage Market (2012)
Working Paper: Making Yourself Attractive: Pre-Marital Investments and the Returns to Education in the Marriage Market (2012)
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