Working Paper: NBER ID: w19413
Authors: Shelly Lundberg; Robert A. Pollak
Abstract: Since 1950 the sources of the gains from marriage have changed radically. As the educational attainment of women overtook and surpassed that of men and the ratio of men's to women's wage rates fell, traditional patterns of gender specialization in work weakened. The primary source of the gains to marriage shifted from the production of household services and commodities to investment in children. For some, these changes meant that marriage was no longer worth the costs of limited independence and potential mismatch.\n\nCohabitation became an acceptable living arrangement for all groups, but cohabitation serves different functions among different groups. The poor and less educated are much more likely to rear children in cohabitating relationships. The college educated typically cohabit before marriage, but they marry before conceiving children and their marriages are relatively stable.\n\nWe argue that different patterns of childrearing are the key to understanding class differences in marriage and parenthood, not an unintended by-product of it. Marriage is the commitment mechanism that supports high levels of investment in children and is hence more valuable for parents adopting a high-investment strategy for their children.
Keywords: Cohabitation; Marriage; Child Investment; Socioeconomic Status
JEL Codes: I24; I3; J11; J12; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| educational attainment (I21) | investment in children (J13) |
| economic status (P46) | investment in children (J13) |
| intertemporal commitment (D15) | investment in children (J13) |
| socioeconomic status (P36) | retreat from marriage (J12) |
| college education (I23) | stable marriages (J12) |
| less education (I24) | cohabitation (J12) |
| decline of traditional gender roles (J12) | changes in family structures (J12) |
| rise of cohabitation (J12) | changes in family structures (J12) |