This paper studies the effect of child care provision on family structure. We present a model of a marriage market with …

Children can be considered as a marriage-specific investment that increases the value of the marriage, making a divorce …, for the United States, to investigate the relation between fertility and marriage instability. In our model of marriage … children conceived during first marriage. Our results indicate that the presence of children significantly reduces the …

Since 1950 the sources of the gains from marriage have changed radically. As the educational attainment of women … 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 …

involved in the legislative process), we show that an expansion in the welfare state increases the fertility, marriage, and … divorce rates with a quantitatively stronger effect on the marriage rate. We conclude that the welfare state supports family … formation. Nevertheless, we also find that the welfare state decouples marriage and fertility, and therefore, alters the …

than fathers report. Parents who remain in a continuous coresidential union, who transition from cohabitation to marriage …

, 45 percent of British children were born outside of marriage, up from 8 percent in 1971. A similar trend appears in the …

Married men earn more than unmarried men. Previous research suggests that marriage itself causes some of the difference …, but includes few men who fathered children out of wedlock. This paper asks whether increasing marriage (and possibly … years after their child’s birth. Results provide some support for the idea that increasing marriage will lead to increased …

gender equality, family planning, low fertility, freedom of spouse choice, older ages at marriage, and the recognition of … sexual relations and childbearing outside marriage. I also discuss how developmental idealism produces resistance against it …