The Effects of Endogamous Marriage on Family Outcomes: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Immigrant Flows During 1900-1930 in the United States

Ho-Po Crystal Wong
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Ho-Po Crystal Wong: West Virginia University, College of Business and Economics

No 14-31, Working Papers from Department of Economics, West Virginia University

Abstract: Positive assortative matching in terms of traits like ethnicity, race and personality has been prevalent in marital formation. One possible explanation for this is that husbands and wives in endogamous marriages have complementary skills and tastes that increase marital surplus. This paper aims to estimate the effects of ethnic assortative matching on a variety of household outcomes by using the exogenous variation in immigrant flows in the United States during the period 1900-1930 to disentangle the selection effect of partners. The major finding is that the complementarities in home production from same ethnic marriage enhances investment in household public goods such as childrearing and home ownership and reduces the market labor supply of wives. OLS and Logit estimates of this effect appear to be substantially biased downward, indicating positive selection into intermarriage in terms of unobservable traits that increase marital surplus.

Keywords: endogamous marriage; assortative matching; immigrants; intermarriage; labor supply; children; household public goods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 J12 J13 J15 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2014-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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