Racial Differences In the Effect of Marriageable Males On Female Family Headship

Authors

Terry Ann Craigie, Connecticut CollegeFollow
Samuel L. Myers, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
William A. Darity, Duke University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1-2018

Publication Title

Journal of Demographic Economics

Abstract

Female family headship has strong implications for endemic poverty in the United States. Consequently, it is imperative to explore the chief factors that contribute to this problem. Departing from prior literature that places significant weight on welfare-incentive effects, our study highlights the role of male marriageability in explaining the prevalence of never-married female family headship for blacks and whites. Specifically, we examine racial differences in the effect of male marriageability on never-married female headship from 1980 to 2010. By exploiting data from IPUMS-USA (N = 4,958,722) and exogenous variation from state-level sentencing reforms, the study finds that the decline in the relative supply of marriageable males significantly increases the incidence of never-married female family headship for blacks but not for whites.

Keywords

Female Family Headship, Inequality, Marriageable Males, Race, Sex Ratio

Volume

84

Issue

3

First Page

231

Last Page

256

DOI

10.1017/dem.2018.3

ISSN

20540892

Comments

Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.

Recommended Citation

Craigie, Terry Ann; Myers, Samuel L.; and Darity, William A., "Racial Differences In the Effect of Marriageable Males On Female Family Headship" (2018). Economics: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_facpubs/69