Should We Get Married? The Effect of Parents’ Marriage on Out-of-Wedlock Children

Shirley Liu and Frank Heiland ()

No 611, Working Papers from University of Miami, Department of Economics

Abstract: Using a representative sample of children all born to unwed parents drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), we investigate whether marriage after childbirth has a causal effect on early child cognitive ability, using a treatment outcome approach to account for selfselection into marriage. Comparing children with similar background characteristics and parental mate-selection patterns who differ only in terms of whether their parents marry after childbirth, marriage between unwed biological parents leads to a four point increase in their child’s Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) score at age three relative to children whose parents remain unmarried.

Keywords: Marriage; Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing; Child Cognitive Development; Propensity Score Matching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C3 J12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2007-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Forthcoming: In revision

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.herbert.miami.edu/_assets/files/repec/wp-0611.pdf First version, 2007 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: SHOULD WE GET MARRIED? THE EFFECT OF PARENTS' MARRIAGE ON OUT‐OF‐WEDLOCK CHILDREN (2012)
Working Paper: Should We Get Married? The Effect of Parents' Marriage on Out-of-Wedlock Children (2008)
Working Paper: Should We Get Married? The Effect of Parents' Marriage on Out-of-Wedlock Children (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mia:wpaper:0611

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