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Assortative mating and divorce: evidence from Austrian register data
Author(s) -
Frimmel Wolfgang,
Halla Martin,
WinterEbmer Rudolf
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of the royal statistical society: series a (statistics in society)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.103
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-985X
pISSN - 0964-1998
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-985x.2012.01070.x
Subject(s) - assortative mating , ethnic group , immigration , demographic economics , secularization , demography , economics , political science , sociology , law , population
Summary. We show that changes in assortative mating patterns along the dimensions of age, ethnicity, religion and education are not responsible for the increasing marital instability over the last four decades in Austria. Without the rise in the age at marriage, divorce rates would be considerably higher. Immigration and secularization, and the resulting supply of spouses with diverse ethnicity and religious denominations had no overall effect on divorce rates. Countervailing effects—in line with theoretical predictions–offset each other. The rise in the incidence of divorce is most probably caused by increased social acceptance of divorce.