Marriage Behavior Research Articles

Class, gender and marriage

This paper estimates the contributions of differential fecundity, social heterogeneity, assortative matching and search frictions to aggregate marriage behavior in 18th century Quebec. The reduced form estimates show that a simple random matching model of the marriage market, in which there are gains to assortative matching and women may leave the marriage market at a higher rate than men, can explain these data. The estimates also show that the marriage market was segmented by social status.

Sociological Explanations of Changing Income Distributions

Most explanations of rising income inequality stress technology and labor market change. Here, the author focuses on marriage behavior and women’s employment. The evidence suggests that assortative mating tends to heighten inequalities when it is accompanied by couple similarities in labor supply and earnings capacity. An equalizing effect of women’s employment will primarily emerge when lower educated women’s labor supply increases rapidly. In the second part of the article, the author adopts a dynamic perspective, focusing on intergenerational mobility. Mothers’ employment is positive for children’s life chances because it minimizes poverty risks. And if external child care is of high quality, maternal employment has no negative effects on child outcomes. The rise in female employment may therefore also help diminish the reproduction of inequalities.

Central European household and family systems, and the ‘Hajnal–Mitterauer’ line: The parish of Bujakow (18th–19th centuries)

The article examines marriage behaviours, household patterns and household formation rules prevailing among the population of the Upper Silesian parish of Bujakow during the late 18th and the first part of the 19th century. Their character, it is argued, is crucial not only for the proper understanding of European family systems in the past, but also for accurate comparisons of family systems in Europe and Asia. The family pattern prevailing in this part of central Europe exhibited a ‘hybrid’ nature in many respects. The pattern's chief characteristics were a moderate age at marriage, the dominance of simple family households and the high incidence of lifecycle servants. Serial household lists revealed, however, the significant diversity in proportions of household types between censuses and between villages. Despite the strong indication of a stem family pattern in the parish, the analysis of headship transmission revealed the concurrent co-existence of various modes of household formation among families. Some of these formation processes did not vary much from neo-local principles or followed exactly this type of pattern. This study also made it possible to reconsider the supposed relationship between the seigneurial authority and family behaviours in the parish pointing out the considerable degree of autonomy of the peasant subjects.

The rising share of nonmarital births: Fertility choice or marriage behavior?

Much of the sharp rise in the share of nonmarital births in the United States has been attributed to changes in the fertility choices of unmarried and married women-in response, it is often argued, to public policy. In contrast, we develop and test a model that attributes the rise to changes in marriage behavior, with no necessary changes infertility. A variety of empirical tests strongly support this conclusion and invites focused attention to issues related to marriage behavior as well as to the interactions between marriage and fertility.

The context of aggressive behavior in marriage: A longitudinal study of newlyweds.

Under what circumstances are spouses more or less likely to engage in aggressive behaviors? To address this question, the current study drew on multiple longitudinal assessments of 1st-married newlyweds to examine correlates of within-subject variability in aggressive behavior. Controlling for marital satisfaction, the authors found that spouses were more likely to engage in physical aggression at times when they engaged in higher levels of psychological aggression. Additionally, husbands reporting higher levels of chronic stress were more likely to engage in physical aggression overall and were more likely to engage in physical aggression when they were experiencing higher than average levels of acute stress. These results highlight how demands and supports in the context external to a marriage may affect processes within the marriage.

Love and Violence: Marriage as Metaphor for the Relationship between YHWH and Israel in the Prophetic Books (review)

Hebrew Studies 46 (2005) 407 Reviews Shared by the Tetrateuch and the DtrH” (pp. 101–102), a Bibliography (pp. 103–114), and an Index of References (pp. 115–127). The strengths of this study could have been enhanced by more discussion of the nature of the intertextuality Harvey describes. For example, when he says that “Dtr based the Manoah story of Judg. 13 on Genesis 18” (pp. 38– 39), would he describe this relationship as typology, allegory, or something else? Or, would he avoid such compartmentalization? Some may find his psychologizing of Dtr’s “Torah Consciousness” (Chapter 3) to require more controllable defining. Overall, however, Harvey is to be commended for the remarkable clarity with which he writes and explains complex intertextual relationships. It makes this work both accessible to a wide readership while a challenge to the status quo of scholarly opinion on the issues it addresses. The impression with which a reader is left is that the intertextuality he presents is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Harvey’s work opens the door for even more comprehensive treatment of this topic to illuminate our understanding of the history and unity of the Tetrateuch, its use in subsequent texts, and what that reveals about various biblical authors’ views of historiography. Daniel M. Gurtner Tyndale House Cambridge, England dgurtner@yahoo.com LOVE AND VIOLENCE: MARRIAGE AS METAPHOR FOR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YHWH AND ISRAEL IN THE PROPHETIC BOOKS. By Gerlinde Baumann. Translated by Linda M. Maloney. Pp. xii + 271. Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 2003. Paper, $39.95. This book sets out to explore and assess the marriage metaphor in the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible. It is the most comprehensive, though not necessarily most original treatment of this topic, as it discusses texts from Hosea to the Twelve Prophets, rather than select texts. The book differs from previous scholarship in its attempt to consider this metaphor in the context of ancient Near Eastern law codes, and in its attempt to balance critical observations with historical considerations. The book is divided into three uneven parts related to research background, textual studies, and a brief summary. The first part of the book begins with an overview of previous scholarship on the marriage metaphor, and an overview on metaphor in literary criticism. Baumann appropriately mentions the earlier feminist studies of T. Drorah Hebrew Studies 46 (2005) 408 Reviews Setel, Phyllis Bird, Fokkelien van Dijk-Hemmes, Athalya Brenner, Renita Weems, and Yvonne Sherwood, who have already raised the issue of male violence as a behavioral norm in heterosexual marriage, and as a conduct attributed to God. While she accepts the basic insights made so far on this topic, Baumann argues correctly that most previous studies have not sufficiently considered the historical context of the ancient Near East. Baumann mentions the work of Max Black and Paul Ricoeur, whose theories of metaphors have done the most to break the automatic correlation between the representing image and the object represented in reality. This overview does not take account of postmodern theories of the metaphoric uses of discourse as such. Nevertheless, Baumann emphasizes that metaphorical language has a precognitive value that shapes emotional and moral responses. In chapter 3, Baumann offers an inventory of prophetic terms used to describe a wife’s unacceptable behavior in marriage, such as harlotry (ZNH) and adultery (N√F). She suggests, rather vaguely, that some of these terms have equivalences in ancient Near Eastern codes. Finally, in chapter 4, Baumann discusses the concept of berit or covenant, which is a legal concept applied metaphorically to describe the marital relationship between YHWH, the husband, and Israel, his wife. In chapter 5, Baumann traces the concept of a city as wife to ancient Near Eastern sources. She also notes parallels between prophetic references to the punishment of a disloyal wife to Babylonian and Nuzi texts regarding the punishments of wives seeking divorce. She cites the comparative work of Raymond Westbrook who found parallels between the stripping and expulsion scenarios in the Prophets and a text from Nippur describing the punishment meted out to an adulterous wife. Baumann cites work by Delbert Hillers to substantiate similar correlations between prophetic language and ancient...

Survivor Benefits and the Gender Tax Gap in Public Pension Schemes: Observations from Germany

Since its inception, the traditional form of providing survivor benefits within public pension schemes has lost much of its legitimacy. As a result of fundamental changes in marriage behaviour and the typical division of labour between married spouses, offering noncontributory benefits of this kind could be seen as inequitable. Since these benefits usually substitute for non-derived pension entitlements based on the surviving spouse's own contributions, they can also lead to incentive effects, especially for married women with some degree of labour-force attachment, that appear to be far from optimal. The present paper highlights this problem referring to institutional details and empirical results related to Germany and shows how it could be resolved by jointly annuitizing a given couple's pension entitlements.

A peek inside the black box: What marriage means for poor unmarried parents

Key Words: cohabitation, disadvantage, family formation, marriage, meaning, norms. Marriage is down, cohabitation is up, and the divorce rate remains high in the United States. Further, in 1950, only 1 in 20 births was to an unmarried woman, whereas today, more than a third of American children are born outside marriage. The number of gay and lesbian couples raising children together is also on the rise. These important demographic changes are evident in Canada, the United Kingdom, and in much of Western Europe as well. Each author in this print symposium documents the extent of these massive transformations in family life and speculates about what they mean for the future of marriage. The virtues of the articles in this issue far outweigh their shortcomings. Each demonstrates a commanding knowledge of the data on the magnitude of family changes and how they are arrayed across societies-and, in some cases, for various subgroups within societies. We see three ways in which scholars could build on these articles to expand our scientific understanding of these important trends. First, documenting changes in cohabitation and marriage for whole societies, though vital, often masks the substantial variations within societies by race/ethnicity and immigration status, social class, or other factors such as region or sexual orientation. Two articles in this volume focus on large and important variations in cohabitation and marriage by subgroups within the United States and Canada, and are a vivid testimony to the importance of studying subgroup differences. We advocate for more work in this vein, especially in the neglected area of social class. Differences by socioeconomic status in childbearing, cohabitation, and marriage behavior are often large, even controlling for characteristics such as race/ethnicity (Ellwood & Jencks, 2001). Second, researchers should pay more attention to parental status and how it affects attitudes and behaviors with regard to cohabitation and marriage. Third, following Max Weber (1949), we believe that human behavior cannot be fully understood unless social scientists understand the meanings that humans ascribe to their actions. Following Oropesa and Landale (2004), we advocate for qualitative research that allows us to peek inside the 'black box' in order to identify the content of culture (p. 914). The purpose of our article is fourfold. First, we want to explore the meanings of childbearing, cohabitation, and marriage for a specific subgroup in U.S. society-low-income residents of large cities-and to speculate about the role that these meanings may play in influencing the behaviors we observe. Second, we focus on unmarried parents who share children, and we look at how parental status plays a unique role in shaping views and actions with regard to cohabitation and marriage. Third, we aim to show, by example, how vital it is to understand the meanings that these men and women ascribe to their actions. Finally, as do the other authors in this volume, we speculate about what our findings may mean for the future of marriage. BACKGROUND Though nonmarital childbearing, nonmarriage, cohabitation, and divorce have increased in nearly all segments of American society, all are still most common in the low-income population and members of some disadvantaged minority groups. In Huston and Melz's (2004) words, among these groups, it would appear that the strings that pull people into marriage and bind them together have lost much of their fiber (p. 947). In fact, America's least advantaged citizens, nonmarital childbearing has become the rule (Ventura & Bachrach, 2000), and marriage just might eventually become the exception (Lichter & Graefe, 2001). This fact has led some to charge that America's poorest and most disadvantaged citizens have abandoned the institution of marriage altogether. Recently, though, a new longitudinal survey of nonmarital births has provided evidence that seems to counter these claims. …

Insight into ethnic flux: marriage patterns among Jews of mixed ancestry in Israel.

Increases in ethnic and racial intermarriage in immigrant countries have led to growing proportions of persons of mixed ancestry and backgrounds. The marriage patterns of these persons both reflect and affect the salience and meaning of current forms of ethnicity and race in these societies. This article analyzes the marriage behavior of children of ethnically mixed unions in the Jewish population of Israel. Among persons of mixed ancestry, educational attainment plays a large role in whether they marry Ashkenazim or less economically advantaged Mizrahim. Such patterns suggest that intermarriage in Israel does not necessarily reduce ethnic differences in socioeconomic status or the salience of ethnicity among disadvantaged groups.

Widows Waiting to Wed?

In this paper we focus on an age restriction for remarriage in the Social Security system to determine if individuals respond to economic incentives for marriage. Aged widow(er) benefits are paid by the Federal government to persons whose deceased spouses worked in Social Security covered employment. A widow(er) is eligible to receive benefits if she or he is at least age 60. If a widow(er) remarries before age 60, he or she forfeits the benefit and, therefore, faces a marriage penalty. Under current law, there is no penalty if the remarriage occurs at 60 years of age or later We investigate whether this rule affects the marriage behavior of widows. Specifically, we examine the rates of remarriage of women around age 60 under current as well as past Social Security eligibility rules using data from the Vital Statistics. Our results provide compelling evidence that this group of women respond to economic incentives when considering the decision to remarry. First, the 1979 law change that eliminated the marriage penalty for those at least age 60 resulted in a large increase in the marriage rate for widows at

Marriage at the Time of the Council of Trent (1560-70): Clandestine Marriages, Kinship Prohibitions, and Dowry Exchange in European Comparison

AbstractA close analysis of marital dispensations granted by the Holy Penitentiary shows that so-called clandestine marriages were widespread all over Catholic Europe before the Council of Trent. Only in Italy and perhaps in France were domestic partnerships rare, while they were very common in Portugal and Spain. This essay argues that the popularity of the dowry system in Italy made it difficult for women to choose their partners without parental consent. On the Iberian Peninsula, where forms of joint ownership in marriage and equal inheritance were predominant, free-choice marriages were widespread. The lively debates preceding the abolition of clandestine marriages at the Council of Trent show how divided the church was on this issue. While parental consent was not made mandatory for a marriage to be valid at Trent, post-Tridentine church administrators promoted parental involvement by acknowledging dowry exchange as a vital component of social reproduction. After Trent, applicants had to specify a reason for their intended violation of kinship prohibitions; the most often quoted obstacle to an exogamous union was the bride's lack of a competitive dowry. This change in rhetoric suggests that after Trent, the Penitentiary promoted dowry exchange as a proven means to facilitate arranged marriages among "strangers," while at the same time acknowledging problems with this mode of social reproduction. As an alternative to dotal marriages, the bureau of marital dispensations offered easy exemptions from kinship prohibitions at exponentially increased rates, promoting "cousin" marriages in lieu of exogamous unions. In promoting endogamy and/or dowry exchange, the post-Tridentine church promoted two varieties of marriage behavior indiscriminately which in the past had not only been seen as mutually exclusive, but also as diametrically opposed to the ideals of the Catholic church. Ironically, after Trent marriage had become less rather than more stable, since ecclesiastic courts were now more likely to separate badly married couples than unite them.

Expectancies and Communication Behavior in Marriage: Distinguishing Proximal-Level Effects from Distal-Level Effects

This study investigates the relationship between married couples' communication behavior during problem-solving conversations and their pre-conversation expectancies. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to distinguish between proximal-level and distal-level effects. A proximal-level effect is when fluctuations in a person's expectancies are followed by immediate changes in communication behavior. A distal-level effect is when a person's average expectancies across multiple conversations correlate with average communication behavior across multiple conversations. Married couples completed measures of pre-conversation expectancies and engaged in a sequence of four, videotaped problem-solving discussions. At the proximal level, wives' expectancies predicted communication behavior for both wives and husbands. Husbands' expectancies were largely nonsignificant at the proximal level. At the distal level, both wives' and husbands' expectancies predicted communication behavior.

Generational Effects on Marriage Patterns: Jewish Immigrants and Their Descendants in Israel

We analyze various effects of generational status on marriage patterns of Jewish immigrants and their descendants in Israel over the last 4 decades. We report the following findings: (a) important, independent effects of generational endogamy on marriage patterns in all periods; (b) steady declines in ethnic endogamy among the native born, along with stability in levels of ethnic endogamy among first‐generation immigrants over the past 3 decades; (c) effects of generational status on the propensity to marry in all periods. Our results suggest an increase over time in the relative importance of generational factors in marriage patterns. This conclusion contrasts with previous research documenting general declines in the importance of ascriptive characteristics in marriage behavior.

Recent Work in Belgian Historical Demography, Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Edited by Isabelle Devos and Muriel Neven. Revue Belge d'Histoire Contemporaine / Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis 31, 3–4, Antwerp, 2001. Pp. 311–647. €34.

Ten articles and a rich selective bibliography demonstrate the vitality of Historical Demography research in Belgium. In the introductory article, the editors sum up the main progress of the discipline in Belgium since 1981 and present an updated impressive commented bibliography. Belgian researchers have broken down many stereotypes. For instance, the process of industrialization in mid-nineteenth-century Belgium did not affect the traditional urban network in a spectacular way. Old-established cities and towns like Ghent, Leuven, Verviers, and Charleroi—that receive a special attention in this volume—continued to be important urban centers as they were well before the Industrial Revolution. The stereotype of a massive rural exodus generated by the industrialization is definitively overcome. By adopting a micro-research approach, Katleen Dillen shows that migration was mostly a positive choice and less disruptive than usually considered because it took place in a dense and vivid social network (“From One Textile Centre to Another: Migrations from the District of Ghent to the City of Armentières (France) During the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century,” pp. 431–52). This absence of dramatic change in migration pattern during the industrialization—which is therefore opposite to the situation observed in the Ruhr during the same period—explains why there was no difference in fertility intensity and calendar between migrant people and the sedentary population of the industrial area of Charleroi. Interestingly Flemish migrants to Charleroi adopted the same demographic behavior as the native Walloon people. So, according to Thierry Eggerickx, the main determinant of fertility behavior is the living conditions at the place of arrival rather than the geographical and cultural origin. Eggerickx also emphasizes that the beginning of the demographic transition coincided with the economic crisis of 1873–1892. However, until now the relationship between changes in demographic behavior and economic upheaval remains unclear (“The Fertility Decline in the Industrial Area of Charleroi During the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century”). The social network should probably have played a key role during that period of economic crisis. Indeed, the importance of a dense social network clearly appears as far as the illegitimate fertility in Leuven during the economic crisis of the mid-nineteenth century is concerned. Jan Van Bavel demonstrates that the risks of pregnancy before age 26 and subsequent marriage chances did not result from isolation in town (Leuven), but that sexual activity of unmarried women of courtship age was, on the contrary, a sign of integration within the local community. However what was the role of the economic crisis on the behavior of these women? (“Malthusian Sinners: Illegitimate Fertility and Early Marriage in Times of Economic Crisis: A Case Study in Leuven, 1846–1856”). Leuven's urban society in the nineteenth century is also the place to explore the relation between age homogamy and the increasing importance of romantic love. Bart Van de Putte and Koen Matthijs question Shorter's theory by demonstrating that romantic love did not involve the lower classes. The only clear cultural change in Leuven was the spread of what is today called “a conservative model of marriage life” in which the patriarchal tradition was mixed with new family centered values (“Romantic Love and Marriage. A Study of Age Homogamy in Nineteenth Century Leuven”). This model of marriage behavior seems to correspond to the Catholic Church's doctrine on matrimonial matters. The Belgian Catholic Church managed quite well to adapt itself to social changes of the nineteenth century (Paul Servais, “The Church and the Family in Belgium, 1850–1914”). Mortality has attracted fresh research. Michel Oris and George Alter explore the relationship between migration to the city and mortality pattern. In industrial towns, migration had a positive impact on mortality in the short-term, because the newcomers were healthier than natives of the same age. However, the place of arrival—the new industrial milieu—rapidly affected the children of the migrants who were disproportionately exposed to urban epidemiological conditions. Alter and Oris stress the existence of a "epidemiological depression" between 1846 and 1880, which will need further investigation. Moreover, migration to the industrial cities was at the origin of a specific pattern of mortality: high level of infant and child mortality, lower level of adult mortality (“Paths to the City and Roads to Death: Mortality and Migration in East Belgium During the Industrial Revolution”). The persistent high level of infant mortality at the turn of the twentieth century is confirmed by Marc Debuisson's enquiry covering the whole territory of Belgium (“The Decline of Infant Mortality in the Belgian Districts at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”), meanwhile Jeroen Backs observes an increasing discrepancy between upper classes and poor people in front of death. The inequality results from a growing infant and child mortality (“Mortality in Ghent, 1850–1950: A Social Analysis of Death”).

Problem–solving conversations in marriage: Does it matter what topics couples discuss?

To address the validity of a common procedure for assessing problem–solving communication behavior in marriage, this study investigated the extent to which communication behavior is influenced by the difficulty of the topic being discussed. Married couples engaged in a sequence of four videotaped problem–solving conversations, and the topics discussed in each conversation were coded for difficulty. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to investigate both proximal and distal influences on communication behavior. At the proximal level, couples did not change their communication behavior in response to changes in topic difficulty that occurred across the four conversations. At the distal level, couples experiencing conflict over a highly difficult topic reported low relationship satisfaction and used negative forms of communication behavior in all their problem–solving conversations, regardless of the issue being discussed. The relationship between topic difficulty and communication behavior was mediated by marital satisfaction.

Cohabiting, Dating, and Perceived Costs of Marriage: A Model of Marriage Entry

This paper investigates the decision to marry among individuals in cohabiting and steady noncohabiting relationships, with emphasis on the effects of cohabitation in the decision‐making process. A model is proposed wherein cohabitation influences the perceived costs and benefits of marriage, which influence intentions and expectations to marry, which influence actual marriage entry. The model is tested using data from the first and second waves of the National Survey of Families and Households. Cohabitation status is found to predict perceived costs and benefits of marriage, and also to predict marriage intentions and expectations. Cost perceptions further predict intentions and expectations among both cohabitors and daters, and perceived costs, intentions, and expectations to marry the partner predict actual marriage behavior. Cohabitation appears to significantly change the context in which decisions about marriage are made in romantic relationships and merits a greater place in the literature on dating and courtship.

Marriage and Economic Incentives: Evidence from a Welfare Experiment

Can economic incentives be used to affect marriage behavior and slow the growth of single-parent families? This paper provides new evidence on the effects of welfare benefit levels on the marital decisions of poor women. Exogenous variation in welfare benefits arises from a randomized experiment carried out in California. Whereas previous studies have measured women's responses to year-to-year changes in welfare benefit changes, I am able to measure responses over longer periods of time. The analysis recognizes that married women can receive AFDC benefits under some circumstances, and distinguishes between transitions into marriage and transitions out of marriage. I find that higher benefits encourage aid recipients who are married to divorce, but have little effect on the probability that single-parent aid recipients marry. The effects on married recipients become larger over time and do not appear to be measuring responses to other, simultaneous changes in California's welfare system. For policy purposes, these results suggest that states can increase the incentive to stay married by increasing two-parent benefits relative to single-parent benefits, an option that only recently became allowed by federal welfare reform.

Kinship and Marriage among the Omaha, 1886-1902

kinship is a major model for patrilineal kinship and marital exchanges. However, some authors have suggested that kinship rules and unilineal descent are merely theoretical constructs of anthropologists or cultural ideals usually not followed in practice. Given the importance of kinship for theory, this article tests the normative rules for marriage against empirical data on actual marriage behavior among the late-nineteenth-century Omaha tribe of Nebraska using Bureau of Indian Affairs census rolls. The results confirm that the majority of Omaha did indeed follow the normative rules upon which the model is based. The implications for kinship studies is that descent theory and alliance models can still be considered valid approaches to societies prior to historic changes. (Omaha, Crow-Omaha exchange, patrilocal, patrilineal) ********** A trend among some anthropologists is to claim that classificatory kinship models are theoretical constructs imposed upon cultures by Euro-American ethnographers or that the models are normative descriptions of cultural ideals rarely practiced. Schneider (1984) critiques several preconceived assumptions on kinship that influence ethnographers' interpretations. One of Schneider's main criticisms is the assumption that non-Western cultures conceptualize biological relations in the same way as Western cultures, which he claims is the basis for descent theory (Carsten 2000; Franklin and McKinnon 2001; Schneider 1984). The realization that biological affinity is not conceptualized, operationalized, or even important to social life from one culture to another has given way to studies on relatedness in an effort to reinvent understandings of kinship (e.g., Carsten 2000; Franklin and McKinnon 2001). These studies emphasize multiple ways that individuals relate to one another: through descent relations, affinal relations, friendship relations, political relations, and economic relations (e.g., Hutchinson 2000; Stafford 2000). Relations are thus seen as actively manipulated and reconceptualized within changing cultural contexts. Another manner in which anthropologists are beginning to understand relatedness is through theory. Although Levi-Strauss (1982, 1987) originally thought of his proposed house societies as one category alongside descent categories, more recent proponents of house theory tend to argue that people's relations rarely conform to the descent models (e.g., Gillespie 2000a; Carsten and Hugh-Jones 1995). Gillespie (2000b: 1) summarizes this view in her opening paragraph: Ethnographic descriptions have dispelled the notion that prescriptive and proscriptive kinship `rules' govern social life. Schneider (1984) also claimed that an illogical separation of biological relations from political and economic relations characterized much of kinship theory prior to the 1970s. However, there is a tradition in anthropology for viewing a relationship between these inseparable parts. Social organization, and hence descent, are interrelated with political and economic relations, while marriage preferences and postmarital residence reproduce those social relations (e.g., Gjessing 1975; Godelier 1984; Morgan 1870; Moore 1991; Peletz 1995; Schweizer and White 1998; Wolf 1982:88-96). If we accept this premise, which seems to be the direction the reinvented (e.g., Carsten 2000) understanding of kinship is going, then in a modern era of intensified incorporation in global capitalism we should expect changes in the ways people understand their relatedness. However, we should not conclude that modern changing cultures reflect social relations in their nineteenth-century and earlier ascendant cultures, which much of descent theory was based upon. With the exception of Levi-Strauss's (1982, 1987) house societies that were based on ethnohistorical documentation, many ethnographies purported to contradict descent theory are in fact post-World War II. …

Marriage and Economic Incentives

Can economic incentives be used to affect marriage behavior and slow the growth of single-parent families? This paper provides new evidence on the effects of welfare benefit levels on the marital decisions of poor women. Exogenous variation in welfare benefit incentives arises from a randomized experiment carried out in California that allows me to measure responses beyond simple year-to-year changes in benefit levels. I find that a regime of lower benefits and stronger work incentives encourages married aid recipients to stay married, but has little effect on the probability that single-parent aid recipients marry. The effects on married recipients become larger over time, suggesting that long-run effects may exist.

Gender Differences in Union Formation in Mexico: Evidence From Marital Search Models

Although increasingly appreciated for their explanatory power in developed societies, marital search models have yet to be widely applied to developing nations. This article evaluates the applicability of marital search models to marriage timing in Mexico. The analysis compares separate models of union formation for men and women that include individual and marriage market predictors. Results show that union formation is closely linked to the uncertainties surrounding the transition to adulthood and the availability of marriageable partners. Improvements in women's economic position do not diminish the attractiveness of marriage, as female independence arguments would suggest. Instead, they are a central force behind the stability of marriage behavior in Mexico. A central transformation identified in the analysis is the reduction in sex differences in age at marriage as women expand their education and labor force participation.