Gender gaps in education and declining marriage rates

Over the past half-century, the share of men enrolled in college has steadily declined relative to women. Today, 1.6 million more women than men attend four-year colleges in the U.S. This trend has not lowered marriage rates for college women, a substantial share of whom have historically married economically stable men without college degrees. Both historical evidence and cross-area comparisons suggest that worsening male outcomes primarily undermine the marriage prospects of non-college women. The gap in marriage rates between college-and non-college women is more than 50% smaller in areas where men have the lowest rates of joblessness and incarceration.

That is from a new paper by Clara Chambers, Benny Goldman, and Joseph Winkelmann.  Via the excellent Kevin Lewis.

Comments

Comments for this post are closed