This paper analyses long-term effects of highly unbalanced sex ratios in Germany caused by World War II on fertility outcomes over the life cycle. By using Census data linked with individual biography data, we find that a permanent reduction in the number of men delayed women's first birth....

Each generation renegotiates the relationship between the sexes. We are now in the midst of a wholesale transformation. The large scale movement of married women into the workforce has fundamentally altered the bargaining position of men and women. Sex is less closely linked to reproduction;...

This paper studies how individuals believe human capital investments will affect their future career and family life. We conducted a survey of high-ability currently enrolled college students and elicited beliefs about how their choice of college major, and whether to complete their degree at...

Identifying the factors that influence labor force participation could elucidate how individuals arrive at their labor supply decisions, whose understanding is, in turn, of crucial importance in analyzing how the supply side of the labor market functions. This paper investigates the effect of...

In 1957 the state of Mississippi amended its marriage law. Changes included raising the minimum age for men and women, parental consent requirements, compulsory blood tests and proof of age. As a result, the number of marriages performed in Mississippi fell by more than 60 percent in 2 years....

This paper examines whether parental marriage confers educational advantages to children relative to cohabitation. We exploit a dramatic marriage boom in Sweden in late 1989 created by a reform of the Widow's Pension System that raised the attractiveness of marriage compared to cohabitation to...

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In this paper we evaluate whether there are differences in adult and child outcomes between cohabiting and married households, once differences in observed characteristics are controlled for and possible endogeneity biases due to selection issues are taken into account by using an instrumental...

This paper explores the legitimacy of patent law. It presents two detailed case studies to demonstrate how the European Patent Office's practice Examination Guidelines transform contested inventive matter and methods into arguable patent claims. The analysis makes the broader conceptual point...