Still Waiting for Mister Right? Asymmetric Information, Abortion Laws and the Timing of Marriage

Simon W. Bowmaker () and Patrick Emerson ()
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Simon W. Bowmaker: New York University

No 4176, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Previous studies have suggested that more liberal abortion laws should lead to a decrease in marriage rates among young women as 'shotgun weddings' are no longer necessary. Empirical evidence from the United States lends support to that hypothesis. This paper presents an alternative theory of abortion access and marriage based on asymmetric information, which suggests that more liberal abortion laws may actually promote young marriage. An empirical examination of marriage data from Eastern Europe shows that countries that liberalized their abortion laws saw an increase in marriage rates among non-teenage women.

Keywords: marriage asymmetric information; abortion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J13 K0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2009-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cta
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Published - published in: Applied Economics, 2013, 45 (22), 3151-3169

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