The twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Gary Becker's path-breaking Treatise on the Family provides an … occasion to reexamine both the American family and family economics. We begin by discussing how families have changed in recent … decades: the separation of sex, marriage, and childbearing; fewer children and smaller households; converging work and …

chronological age and entry into marriage. Patterns of entry into marriage, broken down by sex, year of birth and level of schooling …, are usea to estimate year to year fluctuations in the available pool of marriage partners. Age-related variation in entry … into marriage is then considered in light of changes in the marriage pool as well as labor force integration - captured …

Pattems of entry into first marriage among recent birth cohorts (1952 - 1967) of young adults are examined based upon … timing oftheir entry into marriage. Labor force integration - concluding one's education and entering the labor force - is … interesting developments: the tendency for American men and women to enter marriage early, relative to their West German peers …