Marriage, divorce and changing labor markets

In this project, I document changes in marriage, divorce and fertility patterns over time and space, and I show that, in many developed countries, a widening 'marriage gap' has emerged. Low-wage and less educated individuals are nowadays not only less likely to get married than better-off individuals, but also more exposed to the risk of divorce and more likely to have children out of wedlock. The broad goal of the project is to improve our understanding of the factors underlying the 'marriage gap', and argue that this has important consequences for the well-being of more fragile population groups, as well as for inequality within and across generations. The project currently relies on household survey data (e.g. Census and time-use surveys) from China, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, and the USA. I aim to exploit the diverse strenghts of each of these datasets and the specific normative and economic environment of each country to address specific policy-relevant issues.

Keywords:Family labor supply, Marriage and divorce, Inequality

Disciplines:Labour and demographic economics