Non-marital childbearing has increased dramatically over the past several decades in both the US and the UK. In 2008, 45 percent of British children were born outside of marriage, up from 8 percent in 1971. A similar trend appears in the US, with 41 percent of births in 2008 occurring to...

The context of family life has changed dramatically over the past 50 years. Today, over 40 percent of children in the U.S. are born to unmarried parents, up from only 5 percent in 1960. My research tries to understand why this change is happening and what it means for parents, children and...

In this paper we investigate the effect of relative income on marital status. We develop an identity model based on Akerlof and Kranton (2000) and apply it to the marriage decision. The empirical evidence is consistent with the idea that people are more likely to marry when their incomes...

In this paper we investigate the effect of relative income on marital status. We develop an identity model based on Akerlof and Kranton (2000) and apply it to the marriage decision. The empirical evidence is consistent with the idea that people are more likely to marry when their incomes...

We use the package deal framework to study the trajectory of father involvement over time as a function of union status, while also examining reporting differences in father involvement by parent gender. Data on 4,224 mother-father pairs are from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study....

Low income men are at particular risk for experiencing adverse health conditions such as depression which may reduce involvement with their children. Low income men may also face significant challenges in becoming and remaining involved with their children over time, as many fathers may cease to...

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 cohabitation) following a non-marital birth is likely to...

We draw on three waves of the Fragile Families Study (N = 2,249) to examine family stability among a recent birth cohort (1998 – 2000) of children. We find that children born to cohabiting versus married parents have over five times the risk of experiencing their parents’ separation by age...

We draw on three waves of the Fragile Families Study (N = 2,249) to examine family stability among a recent birth cohort (1998 – 2000) of children. We find that children born to cohabiting versus married parents have over five times the risk of experiencing their parents’ separation by age...

Existing research shows that marriage and marital stability are positively associated with health and well-being. Thus, recent increases in births to unmarried parents and the instability surrounding these relationships raise concerns about the possible health effects associated with changes in...