Assortative Mating and Divorce: Evidence from Austrian Register Data

Wolfgang Frimmel, Martin Halla and Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

No 2009-18, NRN working papers from The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: This paper documents that changes in assortative mating patterns over the last four decades along the dimensions of age, ethnicity, religion and education are not responsible for the increasing marital instability in Austria. Quite the contrary, without the rise in the age at marriage, divorce rates would be considerably higher. Immigration and secularization, and the resulting supply of spouses with diverse ethnicity and religious denominations had no overall effect on divorce rates. Countervailing effects – in line with theoretical predictions – offset each other. The rise in the incidence in divorce is most probably caused by changing social norms.

Keywords: Assortative mating; divorce; marital instability; immigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 J11 J12 J15 R2 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2009-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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http://www.labornrn.at/wp/wp0918.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Assortative mating and divorce: evidence from Austrian register data (2013)
Working Paper: Assortative Mating and Divorce: Evidence from Austrian Register Data (2009)
Working Paper: Assortative Mating and Divorce: Evidence from Austrian Register Data (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2009_18

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