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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Economics In A Family Way, Ted Bergstrom
Economics In A Family Way, Ted Bergstrom
Ted C Bergstrom
This paper is an advertisement for some facts and ideas that I think likely to lead to a richer theory of the economics of the family. The discussion references many papers from anthropology and biology. Because of the intimate connection between the family and reproduction, it should not be surprising that there is much to be learned about the economics of the family from the study of evolutionary biology. Given the increased prevalence in recent decades of unwed parenthood, divorce with sequential monogamy, and ``non-traditional'' family arrangements, it seems that anthropological studies of alternative family structures would help us to …
Income Prospects And Age At Marriage, Ted Bergstrom, Bob Schoeni
Income Prospects And Age At Marriage, Ted Bergstrom, Bob Schoeni
Ted C Bergstrom
In an earlier paper Courtship as a Waiting Game, Mark Bagnoli and I proposed a theory that explained why it is the case that in almost every society and at almost all recorded times, the average age at marriage of men exceeds that of women. An additional prediction of this model was that men who married later in life would turn out to have higher incomes when they reach maturity than those who marry young. The current paper reviews this theory and tests it with U.S. data. Consistent with our theory, we find that there is a strong positive relationship …