Fertility Shocks and Equilibrium Marriage-Rate Dynamics
59 Pages Posted: 19 Aug 2015 Last revised: 21 Feb 2019
There are 2 versions of this paper
Fertility Shocks and Equilibrium Marriage-Rate Dynamics
Fertility Shocks and Equilibrium MarriageāRate Dynamics
Date Written: 2015-03-01
Abstract
Why did the marriage probability of single females in France after World War 1 rise 50% above its pre-war average, despite a 33% drop in the male/female singles ratio? We conjecture that war-time disruption of the marriage market generated an abnormal abundance of men with relatively high marriage propensities. Our model of matching over the lifecycle, when calibrated to pre-war data and two war-time shocks, succeeds in matching the French time path under the additional assumption of a pro-natalist post-war preference shock. We conclude that endogeneity issues make the sex ratio a potentially unreliable indicator of female marriage prospects.
Keywords: Family Economics, Household Formation, Marriage, Fertility.
JEL Classification: D10, E13, J12, J13, O11
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation