A market approach to intermarriage

Grossbard-Shechtman, Amyra (1983): A market approach to intermarriage. Published in:

Abstract

A market approach to intermarriage is developed in the tradition of economic theory. The model includes a supply of women's work in home production and a demand for such work by men. Separate markets exist for different types of work in household production, including different ethnic or religious groups. Some individuals intermarry in the sense that they partner with people from another group. I derive testable predictions regarding the determinants of intermarriage.The model is applied to explain why some Jewish men intermarried with Gentile women and others did not. Controlling for preferences for homogamy (based on Jewish education) it is predicted that men who prefer exogamy will pay a price in terms of being more educated than their Gentile wife, or having fewer previous marriages. Data from the 1970-71 Jewish Population Survey in the USA are used to test the predictions.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: marriage, intermarriage, Jews, education, divorce
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J12 - Marriage ; Marital Dissolution ; Family Structure ; Domestic Abuse; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J15 - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants ; Non-labor Discrimination

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