Education and black-white interracial marriage

This article examines competing theoretical claims regarding how an individual's education will affect his or her likelihood of interracial marriage. I demonstrate that prior models of interracial marriage have failed to adequately distinguish the joint and marginal effects of education on interracial marriage and present a model capable of distinguishing these effects. I test this model on black-white interracial marriages using 1980, 1990, and 2000 U.S. census data. The results reveal partial support for status exchange theory within black male-white female unions and strong isolation of lower-class blacks from the interracial marriage market. Structural assimilation theory is not supported because the educational attainment of whites is not related in any consistent fashion to the likelihood of interracial marriage. The strong isolation of lower-class blacks from the interracial marriage market has gone unnoticed in prior research because of the failure of prior methods to distinguish joint and marginal effects.     

Breaking the racial barriers: Variations in interracial marriage between 1980 and 1990

Using PUMS data from the 1980 and the 1990 U.S. Census, I apply log-linear models to examine interracial marriage among whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. Rarely, but increasingly between 1980 and 1990, interracial marriage of whites occurs most frequently with Asian Americans, followed by Hispanics, and then by African Americans. Interracial marriage tends to be educationally homogamous and the odds of interracial marriage increase with couples ’ educational attainment. Among interracially married couples with different educational attainments, both men and women from lower status racial groups but with high education levels tend to marry spouses from a higher status racial group with low education levels     

Demographic and economic correlates of health in old age

In this paper we examine disparities in the ability to function among older Americans. We place special emphasis on two goals: (I) understanding the quantitatively large socioeconomic status-health gradient, and (2) the persistence in health outcomes over long periods. We find that there exist strong contemporaneous and long-run feedbacks from health to economic status. In light of these feedbacks, it is important to distinguish among alternative sources of income and the recipient of income in the household. This research also demonstrates that health outcomes at old age are influenced by health attributes of past, concurrent, and future generations of relatives. Finally, we find that the demographic and economic differences that exist among them explain functional health disparities by race and ethnicity, but not by gender.     

Demographic correlates of group achievement: contrasting patterns of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans

Patterns of family size, family stability, and timing of family formation characteristic of Mexican-Americans are contrasted with those of Japanese-Americans, and consequences of their demographic differences for group achievement are explored. Mexican-Americans are found to have a demographic system marked by young ages at marriage, young ages at beginning of childbearing, high rates of reproduction, and high rates of marital instability. Japanese-Americans display just the opposite pattern of behavior on each of these variables. Using existing research on determinants of individual achievement, reasons are then suggested why the demographic environment encountered by Japanese-American youth is more conducive to educational and economic achievement than is that encountered by Mexican-American youth.     

Age at marriage,family planning practices,and other variables as correlates of fertility in Korea

The relationships between fertility and thirteen variables are examined in three groups of married Korean women, about 400 each from urban, rural, and semi-rural areas. Data were obtained by interview. Age at marriage and family planning practice are the strongest predictors of fertility and account for about 10 percent and 7 percent of the total variance, respectively. Other factors which accounted for lesser fractions of variability are ideal number of children, rural versus urban residence, education, aspiration for daughters, exposure to mass media, and economic status. Most of the relationships appear to be stable over time; others, which are associated with modernization, appear to be changing. The thirteen variables combined can account for a maximum of 40 percent of the variance in fertility.     

Demographic Differentials and Demographic Integration of Turkish and Kurdish Populations in Turkey

The objectives of the study are threefold: (1) to provide estimates of the total populations and spatial distributions of different language groups in Turkey, (2) to test whether the commonly held belief that Turkish-speaking and Kurdish-speaking populations are “actors” of different demographic regimes is true, and (3) to assess whether a process of integration, in the form of intermarriage of Turks and Kurds is under way in Turkey. Data come mainly from the 2003 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS-2003). Based on the assumption that the mother tongue composition of women is also representative of that of the whole population, the results of the TDHS-2003 imply that of the population of Turkey, 83% are Turkish-speaking, 14% are Kurdish-speaking, 2% are Arabic-speaking and the remaining 1% belong to other language groups. Results show that despite intensive internal migration movements in the last 50 years, strong demographic differentials exist between Turkish and Kurdish-speaking populations, and that the convergence of the two groups does not appear to be a process under way. Turks and Kurds do indeed appear to be actors of different demographic regimes, at different stages of demographic and health transition processes.     

Child marriage in India]

Child marriages have been practiced in India for thousands of years. Even though its popularity has now decreased due to changes in law and society, it is still a major problem, causing a great deal of hardship. Even though laws prohibited child marriage as early as 1860, statistics show that, on the average, Indians marry very young (1972: females at age 17; males at age 22 years of age; 34 females and 13 males under age 15). The following are incentives to marry young and have large families: 1) religion teaches that only those with descendants go to heaven; 2) unmarried women are traditionally scorned; and 3) most importantly, economic reasons encourage people to have large families as soon as possible, e.g., male children are encouraged to marry to obtain the dowry as soon as possible and children are considered a source of income in India. Child marriage in India causes the following problems: 1) a high infant mortality rate, as much as 75% in rural areas; 2) an imbalance in the male to female ratio (1901: 970 females/1000 males; 1971: 930 females/1000 males) because women who marry young tend to lose their health earlier; 3) a population explosion: in 1971, the Indian population was found to be increasing at the rate of 225/1000.     

Demographic pattern in history

The study deals with the relationship of population’ to historical processes. Six aspects are selected for consideration: (1) The pattern of demographic factors which help to cause the persistence of particular human physical types in given localities. (2) Social control to maintain population within subsistence limits. (3) The conditions in which such control breaks down. (4) Migration. (5) Major trends in population history. (6) The influence of population on historical development.     

Age patterns of marriage

Abstract In different populations there is a common curve describing first-marriage frequency (first marriages per woman) as a function of age for each cohort. To fit the variety of patterns of human nuptiality it suffices to choose the age that serves as origin for a standard curve of first-marriage frequency, and to choose appropriate horizontal and vertical scales for the curve. The prevalence of a standard form for first-marriage frequency implies that the proportion ever-married in any cohort also rises along a standard curve, subject to choice of origin (the earliest age of first marriage), vertical scale (the proportion ever-marrying by the end of life), and horizontal scale (the pace at which the proportion ever-married increases with age). A mathematical expression (a double exponential) is found to fit the risk offirst marriage (among those who ever marry), and some of the implications of uniform features of nuptiality in different populations are discussed.     

The institution of marriage

The institution of marriage is both old and ubiquitous. Yet, little work has been done by economists on why this social institution exists and why throughout history it has been intimately linked to fertility. We explain the institution of marriage as a societal consensus on the need to curb cuckoldry for the purpose of paternity certainty and biparental investment in offspring. By raising the costs of mating to individuals, marriage reduces cheating in society, a source of mating market failure, and makes paternity more certain. Men, in consequence, invest more in their putative offspring, a fact that also benefits mothers.     

云南人口机会窗口与人口红利收获研究

该文首先分析了云南人口机会窗口的特征和给社会经济发展带来的潜在机遇,第二部分指出由于劳动就业压力、资本市场不健全和老龄化问题突出等阻碍着我们获取人口红利,最后对收获人口红利的支撑体系进行了简要探讨。     

中国人口转变、人口红利与经济增长的实证

我国人口年龄结构的变动使得劳动负担逐渐下降,这对于储蓄水平的上升和劳动力投入效率的提高具有显著的促进作用;我国劳动负担比与经济增长呈现出明显的负相关,劳动负担比每下降1个百分点,经济增长将提高1.06个百分点,在过去的30年里劳动负担降低累计带来的经济增长占总增长的27.23%。通过计量检验证明人口年龄结构变动所产生的促进经济增长的人口红利是存在的。由此我们推断,由于未来的人口年龄结构变动趋向人口老龄化,劳动负担逐步上升,这将会对未来的经济增长造成制约。利用未来10～20年时间较轻的劳动负担的机遇期,我们应当建立良好的教育、人力资本投资、社会保障等方面的制度以及制定积极的人口政策,调整当前生育政策、适时执行宏观经济政策(劳动就业政策)来应对已发生的、正在进行的人口变动,使我国的经济继续保持强有力的增长态势。     

Bisexual men in marriage: is a positive homosexual identity and stable marriage possible?

The negative picture of mixed-orientation marriages portrayed in previous research is challenged by results from a study and two-year follow-up of a non-clinical sample of 41 spouses representing 30 marriages. Evidence suggests that more recent marriages involving a bisexual are made for positive reasons, rather than as an escape from homosexuality. A comparison of couples in which the homosexual behavior is acknowledged to those in which it is secretive suggests a positive homosexual identity can be developed in the acknowledged situation. Data from a two-year follow-up provide information on the factors which led to the stabilization of such marriages. A schema of developmental crises, decisions, and consequences is presented.     

Economic analysis of same-sex marriage

This article applies the neoclassical microeconomic analysis of marriage as developed by Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker to same-sex marriage. The objective is to demonstrate that the economic analysis of marriage supports allowing same-sex marriage, and that same-sex marriages would strengthen the incentive to marry, increase the efficiency of marriage markets, provide for more children to be raised in two-parent optimum environments, and benefit states economically overall. The article concludes with an overview of the economic impact of same-sex marriages on states based on the analysis, data and fiscal information currently available from researchers and economists in the field.     

Demographic aspects of fertility in Thailand

Abstract Data from a national rural and urban sample survey are analysed in order to examine various demographic aspects of fertility in Thailand. Marital fertility rates found for Thailand are among the highest in Asia. Particularly noteworthy is the persistence of high fertility at older ages of childbearing for rural women. Cumulative fertility shows a pronounced relationship with age at marriage and current marital status. Women who marry at an older age or who experience disruption of their marriages are clearly more likely to have fewer children ever born. Differences in both current and cumulative fertility are strongly associated with residence. Rural women who constitute the vast majority of Thai women, experience the highest fertility, Bangkok-Thonburi women experience the lowest fertility and provincial urban women are characterized by an intermediate fertility level which is closer, however, to the experience of their counterparts in the capital than in the countryside. Rural-urban fertility differences are mitigated but by no means eliminated by differences in infant mortality. In both rural and urban areas a positive association between cumulative fertility and infant morality is evident. Breast-feeding, commonly practised for extended periods-among both rural and urban Thai women, undoubtedly serves to some extent as an intervening variable in this relationship. A comparison of current fertility with cumulative fertility strongly suggests that a decline in marital fertility has been under way recently among urban women, especially those residing in the capital, but not at all among rural women. Although it seems safe to assume that the urban fertility decline results in large part from an increasing use of contraception among urban women, those still in the reproductive ages who were using or had previously used birth control were characterized by higher cumulative fertility than women who had never practised contraception. Evidently couples resort to family planning only late in the family building process after they have already achieved or exceeded the number of children they wish to have.     

Variations in marriage patterns in central Thailand

Data from a survey of marriage patterns in central Thailand illustrate the complexity of change in marriage patterns in a developing society--the diversity of traditional patterns, the different directions of change, and the variations in current patterns. The data were collected in 1978 and 1979 from ever-married women aged 15-44 in three settings:a central plains village, established areas in Bangkok, and a Bangkok squatter settlement. Three forms of entry into marriage were identified:ceremonial marriage with parental involvement in the choice of spouse, ceremonial marriage with self-choice of spouse, and nonceremonial marriage (elopement and living together). All three forms of marriage existed in each setting, and the dominant form differed in each. In general, a family background of higher socioeconomic status led to a greater likelihood of a marriage ceremony and greater parental involvement in spouse choice. Women with more education were also more likely to marry with ceremony, but higher education for daughters was associated with less parental involvement in spouse choice. These findings suggest that marriage patterns may remain diverse in Thailand, even as further development occurs.