Marriage Settlements

French couples may choose between two types of marriage settlements governing asset ownership after a divorce or inheritance: common property or separate property. A cooperative model considers the marriage contract as a means of providing for widowhood of the less endowed spouse. A second model addresses the probability of divorce and the production of a marriage good. The common property contract then becomes a means of inducing the wife to invest in the marriage good. Choice of contract, labor supply and fertility are simultaneous. Empirically we find that characteristics of the spouses such as relative age or differences in endowments influence the choice. So do the expected number of children and the wife's labor supply decision. This last decision is also shown to be influenced by the chosen settlement, while fertility is not.
JEL classification : J 12; J 4; K 12     

当代大学生婚恋观调查分析与教育思考——以学生管理为视角

正确的婚恋观是当代大学生人性完善、全面发展、健康成长的重要条件,而改革开放的不断深入和东西方文化交流的不断增多,使大学生的婚恋观发生了巨大变化.高校和社会积极引导大学生树立健康的婚恋观显得日益重要.     

我国无效婚姻立法之问题疏理与破解路径

我国无效婚姻的立法不完善,是实务案件审理难的主要症结。未来立法修改时,应当增设原则规范,以弥补类型列举的疏漏;明确对过错方的责任认定和对无过错方的损害赔偿;检察院参与诉讼,保证无被申请人的诉讼中各方利益关系人的合法权益;区分婚姻不成立与婚姻的无效和可撤销。同时,加快家事诉讼立法,以统一的、专门的程序处理包括无效婚姻和可撤销婚姻在内的婚姻家庭纠纷。     

农村大龄未婚男性家庭压力和应对策略研究——基于YC县访谈的发现

通过对中国中部农村的质性访谈,利用扎根理论的三级登录方法,探索性地利用家庭压力理论来解释大龄未婚男性家庭的压力以及可采取的应对策略。农村大龄未婚男性的失婚对家庭在经济上、家庭关系和成员的心理压力上都造成负面影响。研究为提高大龄未婚男性这一弱势群体及其家庭的生活福利,缓解婚姻挤压和促进社会稳定提供理论依据。     

藏族婚姻挤压状况的动态分析

从藏族农奴制社会婚姻市场的历史入手,结合实例,探讨了藏族农奴制社会女性婚姻挤压的原因、后果。结合近年来藏族婚姻挤压逐渐缓解的状况,对比中国当代婚姻市场男性挤压日益严重的现状,预测了藏族婚姻市场未来的变化趋势,对如何化解中国未来婚姻市场的供求矛盾提出了对策和建议。     

The Middle-Eastern marriage pattern? Malthusian dynamics in nineteenth-century Egypt

Malthus predicted that fertility rises with income and that people regulate fertility via regulating marriage. However, evidence on the Malthusian equilibrium has been mostly confined to Europe and East Asia. We employ Egypt's population censuses of 1848 and 1868 to provide the first evidence on the preindustrial Malthusian dynamics in the Middle East and North Africa. At the aggregate level, we document rural Egyptian women having a high fertility rate that is close to the Western European level, combined with low age at marriage and low celibacy rate, that are closer to the East Asian levels. This resulted in a uniquely high fertility regime that was probably offset by the high child mortality. Next, we provide individual-level evidence on the positive correlation between fertility and income (occupation). We find that the higher fertility of rural white-collar men is attributed to their marriage behaviour, and not to marital fertility. Specifically, white-collar men's higher polygyny explains 45 per cent of their fertility advantage, whereas their higher marriage rate and lower wife's age at marriage explains 55 per cent. Therefore, polygyny was an additional factor that led to a steeper income–fertility curve than in Western Europe by enabling the rural middle class to out-breed the poor.     

Where has all the gender gone?

What questions should economists be asking when looking at how markets affect women? This comment expands on a debate begun on Femecon-l and continued in the “Debating Markets” article.     

Does children’s marriage matter for parents' mental health？Evidence from China

How to effectively alleviate mental disorders among elderly individuals is an important issue. Children are important financial and spiritual supporters of parents. However, whether there are upward spillovers from children to parents remains understudied. Using the instrumental variable (IV) method and data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this paper estimates the causal effect of children's marriage on the mental health of older parents. The IV estimation results demonstrate that having unmarried children is associated with a significant deterioration in parental mental health, especially in older, less educated, poor and male groups. Further evidence suggests that having unmarried children leads to significant changes in parents' economic behaviors, including labor supply, consumption, and savings; this indicates that parents are more likely to actively respond to their children’s unmarried status by increasing labor supply, reducing consumption and increasing savings rather than by engaging in negative behaviors.