During the past century the U.S. family system has seen vast changes--in marriage and divorce rates, cohabitation, childbearing, sexual behavior, and women's work outside the home. Andrew Cherlin reviews these historic changes, noting that marriage remains the most common living arrangement for raising children, but that children, especially poor and minority children, are increasingly likely t...

One explanation given for the gender wage gap is the division of labor in the home. On the marriage outset, averagely speaking, husbands who are older invest more human capital in market activities than wives. This paper concentrates on the age gap at first marriage. It hypothesizes that the demand for children is one important reason for the husband-wife age gap. To show this, the paper extend...

In this study we analyze transitions to first marriage in Kyrgyzstan – one of the post-Soviet states of Central Asia. We use retrospective survey data collected in 2011/12 that contain full partnership histories of a representative sample of men and women in that country. We estimate hazard regression models to examine competing risks of arranged and non-arranged marriage among Kyrgyz and Uzbek...

Using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, 1998-2010, we investigated the extent to which patterns of alcohol consumption in Russia are associated with the subsequent likelihood of entry into cohabitation and marriage. Using discrete-time event history analysis we estimated for 16-50 year olds the extent to which the probabilities of entry into the two types of union were affec...

Using population intercensus and national survey data, we examine marriage timing in urban China spanning the past six decades. Descriptive analysis from the intercensus shows that marriage patterns have changed in China. Marriage age is delayed for both men and women, and prevalence of nonmarriage became as high as one-quarter for men in recent birth cohorts with very low levels of education. ...

Purpose: the transformation of marriage patterns and family formation by following transition from traditional society to a modern society causes changes in goals, function of family formation. The aim of this study was comparative investigation of the attitudes of single and married individuals about marriage function. Materials and method: the study performed by qualitative method. The statis...

Marriage matching functions are used to study how marital patterns change when population supplies change. A behavioral marriage matching function with spillover effects is used to rationalize marriage and cohabitation behavior in contemporary Canada. The model non-parametrically identifies the systematic gains to marriage and cohabitation for a couple relative to remaining single. These gains ...