Marriage and Divorce: Changes and their Driving Forces

Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2007, vol. 21, issue 2, 27-52

Abstract: We document key facts about marriage and divorce, comparing trends through the past 150 years and outcomes across demographic groups and countries. While divorce rates have risen over the past 150 years, they have been falling for the past quarter century. Marriage rates have also been falling, but more strikingly, the importance of marriage at different points in the life cycle has changed, reflecting rising age at first marriage, rising divorce followed by high remarriage rates, and a combination of increased longevity with a declining age gap between husbands and wives. Cohabitation has also become increasingly important, emerging as a widely used step on the path to marriage. Out-of-wedlock fertility has also risen, consistent with declining "shotgun marriages". Compared with other countries, marriage maintains a central role in American life. We present evidence on some of the driving forces causing these changes in the marriage market: the rise of the birth control pill and women's control over their own fertility; sharp changes in wage structure, including a rise in inequality and partial closing of the gender wage gap; dramatic changes in home production technologies; and the emergence of the Internet as a new matching technology. We note that recent changes in family forms demand a reassessment of theories of the family and argue that consumption complementarities may be an increasingly important component of marriage. Finally, we discuss how these facts should inform family policy debates.

Date: 2007
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.21.2.27
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (491)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.21.2.27 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Marriage and Divorce: Changes and their Driving Forces (2007)
Working Paper: Marriage and divorce: changes and their driving forces (2007)
Working Paper: Marriage and Divorce: Changes and their Driving Forces (2007)
Working Paper: Marriage and Divorce: Changes and their Driving Forces (2007)
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:jecper:v:21:y:2007:i:2:p:27-52

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Perspectives is currently edited by Enrico Moretti

More articles in Journal of Economic Perspectives from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().