The black-white gap in non marital fertility education and mates in segmented marriage markets

Abstract

This study is the first to find that mate availability explains much of the race gap in non marital fertility in the United States. Both a general and an education-based metric have strong effects. The novel statistical power arises from difference-indifferences for blacks and whites, multiple cohorts, periods, and coefficient restrictions consistent with both the data and models in which differences in mate availability can induce blacks and whites to respond in opposite directions to changes in mate availability. Results are robust to several alternative specifications and tests and appear relevant where marriages are segmented along racial, religious, or other lines.fertility marriage education