# DEMOGRAPHY OF LOCAL MARRIAGE MARKETS

> **NIH NIH R01** · PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE · 1993 · $53,292

## Abstract

The Demography of Local Marriage Markets" is a completely revised version
of a proposal first submitted to the study section in January 1989.  The
main objective is to examine the effects of spatially-based marriage-market
conditions on male and female patterns of first marriage transitions and
assortative mating in the United States.  A guiding hypothesis is that
local marriage-market opportunities and constraints affect (1) the extent
and timing of marriage; and (2) the choice of marital partners.

The choice of a geographic scale most appropriate to the analysis of local
marriage markets is empirical.  Consequently, the first objective is to
evaluate several alternative definitions of marriage-market areas.  We
define these areas using labor markets identified in the 1980 PUMS-D file,
and counties and multicounty units available in the 1988 Area Resource
File.  Indicators of marriage-market conditions such as local economic
opportunities and spouse availability are then included in ecological
models of local-area proportions ever-married.  This analysis addresses a
basic limitation of previous research, which is the implicit assumption
that marriage markets are national rather than local in scope.

The second objective is to fit semi-parametric hazards models of male and
female transitions to first marriage.  Specifically, local marriage-market
indicators are merged for the first time with individual marital history
data from the 1979-1988 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
(NLSY).  These newly merged data provide a unique opportunity to build true
"contextual" models of marital status transitions.  To our knowledge, no
other study has included local marriage-market indicators in behavioral
models of the transition to first marriage.

Finally, a third objective is to examine the effects of local
marriage-market conditions on patterns of assortative mating.
Marriage-market indicators are linked to married-couple records from the
PUMS-D in order to evaluate their effects on patterns of in- and out-group
marriage.  We discuss various log-linear models that are especially
appropriate to identifying patterns of association in cross-classifications
of husbands' and wives' social characteristics.  We also describe it
"competing-risk" hazards models of marital homogamy or heterogamy, using
the linked NSLY/PUMS-D database.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2199890
- **Project number:** 5R01HD026321-03
- **Recipient organization:** PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
- **SAM.gov UEI:** NPM2J7MSCF61
- **Principal Investigator:** DANIEL T. LICHTER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1993
- **Award amount:** $53,292
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1991-09-01 → 1995-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2199890

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2199890, DEMOGRAPHY OF LOCAL MARRIAGE MARKETS (5R01HD026321-03). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2199890. Licensed CC0.

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