Classified broadly, two motives for intra-family transfers exist: altruism and selfishness. This paper examines two selfish hypotheses − the exchange motive (strategic bequest motive)and the demonstration effect − using a new Japanese micro data set. My analysis of the determinants of...

We construct a new, direct measure of female autonomy in household decision-making by creating an index from the principal components of a variety of household variables on which mother of a child takes decision. We then examine its impacts on her child's secondary education in Mexico and find...

Divorce law changes made in the 1970s affected marital formation, dissolution, and bargaining within marriage. By altering the terms of the marital contract these legal changes impacted the incentives for women to enter and remain in the labor force. Whereas earlier work had suggested that the...

According to Pareto (1896), the distribution of income depends on "the nature of the people comprising a society, on the organization of the latter, and, also, in part, on chance." In the model developed here the "nature of the people" is captured by attitudes toward marriage, divorce,...

This article empirically investigates whether cultural, genetic, and linguistic similarities between countries explain marriage migration. The empirical evidence supported by marriage migration data from South Korea shows that the bilateral similarities between Korea and spouse-sending countries...

This study comprehensively examines export tariff liberalization’s influence on women’s marital and fertility decisions in China, using accession to the WTO as a natural experiment. Our identification relies on the shift-share design that combines industry-level variation in export tariff...

One of the most marked demographic trends observed over the twentieth century is the increased rate of divorce. Relatively little research, however, has explored the effects of these changing marital patterns in the context of an aging society. Using a sample of elderly parents and their adult...

This paper investigates the impact of income shocks and bride price on early marriage in Turkey. The practice of bride-price, still vivid in many regions of the country, may provide incentives for parents to marry their daughter earlier, when faced with a negative income shock. In addition,...

This paper develops a new equilibrium model of two-sided search where ex-ante heterogenous individuals have general payoff functions and vectors of attributes. The analysis applies to a large class of models, from the non-transferable utility case to the collective household case with...

This paper provides new evidence of the effects of child gender on parental labor supply and earnings in two-parent families with one child. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, I document a son premium on the intensive margin of both paternal and maternal labor supply. Parents...