This paper examines the marriage tax paid by couples in 2000 using the U.S. Census data from that year. The U.S. Census data allows the study to focus on cohabiting and married couples, and ignore individuals, to overcome the inaccuracies that can result when the income of a potential spouse for an individual must be estimated. The marriage tax for couples is calculated and examined. Then, the ...

Kathryn Edin and Joanna Reed review recent research on social and economic barriers to marriage among the poor and discuss the efficacy of efforts by federal and state policymakers to promote marriage among poor unmarried couples, especially those with children, in light of these findings. Social barriers include marital aspirations and expectations, norms about childbearing, financial standard...

In many traditional societies, women's age at marriage acts simultaneously as a gateway to new family roles and the likelihood of producing offspring. However, inadequate attention has previously been given to the broader health and social implications of variability in women's marriage age for public health. Biomedical scientists have primarily been concerned with whether the onset of reproduc...

We document key facts about marriage and divorce, comparing trends through the past 150 years and outcomes across demographic groups and countries. While divorce rates have risen over the past 150 years, they have been falling for the past quarter century. Marriage rates have also been falling, but more strikingly, the importance of marriage at different points in the life cycle has changed, re...

In this paper we show how relatively small changes in the age at marriage can equilibrate the marriage market despite relatively large differences in the supply of men and women of marriageable age. In particular, a simple demographic model is developed that provides a prediction about the relationship between relative cohort size and age at marriage that differs markedly from that of the stati...

While many models have investigated the role of competitive mate selection processes in human marriage, few have addressed the potential for assortative processes to explain the observed demographics, as well as simultaneously investigating divorce. To explore the possibility that assortative mate selection processes may explain patterns of both marriage and divorce, we developed an agent-based...

History 311 Katherine Smith April 11, 2011 Between A Rock and A Hard Place: Marriage Implications for Women in the Reformation At first glance, the changing trends concerning marriage during the Reformation appear to embody a fundamental shift toward a partnership model of more equal religious status between men and women. Martin Luther, for example, argues in The Estate of Marriage that marria...

The United States has seen a dramatic shift in support for marriage equality for same-sex couples over the past decade, culminating in a recent gay rights victory in the U.S. Supreme Court.1 Also in the past year, several states have approved marriage rights for same-sex couples through the legislative or initiative process, reflecting the increasing cultural and political acceptance of marriag...

Can churches teach the significance of marriage? Can churches teach the faithful about marriage and how to live lives of fulfillment that honor Christ in marriage? We believe the answer to this question is yes, but only if churches choose to take up this important ministry. Certainly churches have a powerful basis in the work of building marriages (Stanley, Markman, St. Peters, & Leber, 1995). ...

Recent research has shown that men's wages rise more rapidly than expected prior to marriage, but interpretations diverge on whether this indicates selection or a causal effect of anticipating marriage. We seek to adjudicate this debate by bringing together literatures on (1) the male marriage wage premium; (2) selection into marriage based on men's economic circumstances; and (3) the transitio...