The Reversal of the Gender Gap in Education and Trends in Marital Dissolution.

ABSTRACT: The reversal of the gender gap in education has potentially far-reaching consequences for marriage markets, family formation, and relationship outcomes. One possible consequence of this is the growing number of marriages in which wives have more education than their husbands. Previous studies have found this type of union to be at higher risk of dissolution. Using data on marriages formed between 1950 and 2004 in the United States, we evaluate whether this association has persisted as the prevalence of this relationship type has increased. Our results show a large shift in the association between spouses' relative education and marital dissolution. In particular, we confirm that marriages in which wives have the educational advantage were once more likely to dissolve, but we show that this

SUBMITTER: Schwartz CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4212646 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature