Divorce and Marriage: Does the Marriage Wage Premium Matter?

Amy Schmidt, Saint Anselm College

There is a sizeable literature on the wage premium of married men. Nearly all of the studies in this area attempt to determine why this premium exists and, recently, why it has been falling. There is also a growing economic literature on marriage and divorce, which complements the large sociological, anthropological and demographic literatures on the same subject. This paper combines these two research areas by attempting to determine whether an individual’s probability of marrying (if single) or divorcing (if married) is affected by the magnitude of his estimated premium. Micro data from the NLSY79 is used to follow more than 1500 white men over a twenty year period. Results are forthcoming.