The European Marriage Pattern and its Positive Consequences Montesquieu-Volvestre, 1660-1789

49 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2018 Last revised: 15 Jan 2021

See all articles by David Le Bris

David Le Bris

Toulouse Business School

Ronan Tallec

Universite de Toulouse 1 Capitole

Date Written: December 1, 2020

Abstract

For a French village, we reconstitute most families and build accurate measurements of economic conditions. Combined with marriage contracts (systematic in this written-law area), we are able to control for wealth, Stem households and social status of father and husband for a representative sample. We clarify the operation of the EMP system: bad economic conditions resulted in later female age at marriage, which had positive consequences, such as fewer children, adjusting the population level, and a smaller age difference between spouses, allowing greater agency for women within the couple. A supposed positive effect on human capital is not significant.

Keywords: European Marriage Pattern, Economic Development, Family System, Population, Gender Gap, Fertility

JEL Classification: J120, J130, K000, N330, O170

Suggested Citation

Le Bris, David and Tallec, Ronan, The European Marriage Pattern and its Positive Consequences Montesquieu-Volvestre, 1660-1789 (December 1, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3143762 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3143762

David Le Bris (Contact Author)

Toulouse Business School ( email )

20, bd Lascrosses
Toulouse, 31068
France

Ronan Tallec

Universite de Toulouse 1 Capitole ( email )

2 Rue du Doyen-Gabriel-Marty
Toulouse, 31042
France

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
118
Abstract Views
891
Rank
457,967
PlumX Metrics