Race, class, and marriage: Components of race differences in men's first marriage rates, United States, 1960-2019.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Wilson (1987) argued that race differences in the frequency of marriage from the 1960s to the 1980s resulted from a shortage of marriageable men in the Black community. A large literature used spatially defined measures of male marriageability to predict marriage rates of women. These studies concluded that the availability of marriageable men can explain only a fraction of race differences in marriage. I argue that this finding may reflect errors in the measurement of the availability of marriageable spouses.

Methods

My analysis assesses marriage rates from the perspective of men instead of women, allowing direct assessment of men's economic positions without resorting to fuzzy spatial indicators. I develop new measures of first marriage rates for the 1960-1980 c

SUBMITTER: Ruggles S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9980877 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature