Male Earnings, Marriageable Men, and Nonmarital Fertility: Evidence from the Fracking Boom

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kearney, Melissa S.; Wilson, Riley
• 署名单位: University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00739
• 发表日期: 2018-07
• 页码: 678-690
• 关键词: market; divorce; IMPACT; income; rates

摘要

We investigate whether an increase in the potential earnings of men leads to an increase in marriage and a reduction in nonmarital births by exploiting the positive economic shock associated with fracking in the 2000s. A reduced-form analysis reveals that in response to local-area fracking production, which increased wages and jobs for non-college-educated men, both marital and nonmarital birth rates increase, but marriage rates do not. The pattern of results is consistent with positive income effects on births but no associated increase in marriage. We contrast our findings to the Appalachian coal boom experience of the 1970s and 1980s.