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Is Marriage a White Institution? Understanding the causes and effects of the racial marriage divide

Author

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  • Nezih Guner

    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

  • Elizabeth Caucutt

    (University of Western Ontario)

Abstract

We develop a model economy in the spirit of Caucutt, Guner and Knowles (2002). Each period single men and women with various levels of productivity are matched in a marriage market segmented by age and race. They decide whether or not to marry taking into account what their next best option is. Decisions within the family are made by Nash bargaining. Husbands and wives decide whether to stay married, how much to work, how many children to have, and how much to invest in any children they do have. Single women choose hours to work, how many children to have, and how much to invest in those children, while single men only choose hours. There is a government that taxes and provides welfare benefits to poor, single mothers. Working people accumulate human capital on the job that depreciates. Time and goods investments in children give rise to the productivity levels of the next generation of adults. In our model, work, fertility, and marriage decisions are all interrelated and endogenous. We calibrate this model to be consistent with key marital, fertility, and labor market statistics for the productivity distribution of white men and women found in the United States. We then investigate how much of the racial divide our model can account for by running the model for the productivity distribution of black men and women. We can then study the effects of various government policies on marriage within this framework, and their long term consequences via their effects on investment in children.

Suggested Citation

  • Nezih Guner & Elizabeth Caucutt, 2009. "Is Marriage a White Institution? Understanding the causes and effects of the racial marriage divide," 2009 Meeting Papers 681, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:sed009:681
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Michael P. Keane & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2010. "The Role Of Labor And Marriage Markets, Preference Heterogeneity, And The Welfare System In The Life Cycle Decisions Of Black, Hispanic, And White Women," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 51(3), pages 851-892, August.
    2. Keane, Michael P & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1997. "The Career Decisions of Young Men," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(3), pages 473-522, June.
    3. Kerwin Kofi Charles & Ming Ching Luoh, 2010. "Male Incarceration, the Marriage Market, and Female Outcomes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(3), pages 614-627, August.
    4. Donna Ginther & Robert Pollak, 2004. "Family structure and children’s educational outcomes: Blended families, stylized facts, and descriptive regressions," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(4), pages 671-696, November.
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