Full text: Applications of event history analysis in life course research

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of education marry later or not at all and are more prone to 
divorce. A strong sex-specific interaction effect is ex¬ 
pected for these varables. The theory predicts that men with 
high income, occupational prestige, and human capital gain 
much from marriage. These men marry early after finishing 
education and are less prone to divorce. 
Of course, education increases the age of marriage for both 
sexes because the "risk" of marriage is low for both men and 
women as long as these are in the educational system 
(Galler, 1979). However, after finishing college or univer- 
sity the degree of education has a positive impact on the 
tendency to marry for men and a negative impact for women. 
Hence, the shift of age at marriage by education must be 
stronger for women than for men (Keeley 1977: 245). 
Costs of divorce is another component influencing both age 
at marriage and marriage stability. The longer the expected 
duration of marriage the longer is the period of search for 
a mate if information is imperfect. Because it is assumed 
that catholics have higher costs of divorce, a higher age at 
marriage and a lower risk of divorce is expected for the 
catholic population other things being equal. On the other 
hand if people's search-period is short the likelihood of a 
"mismatch" increases. This might be a reason for the mar- 
riage-destabilizing-effect of early marriages. As can be seen 
from this short discussion Becker's theory is much more a 
framework than a closed deductive theory. The core of the 
theory is the hypothesis of utility maximization under 
restrictions. However, additional auxiliary hypotheses are 
necessary to bridge the gap between theoretical terms like 
"gain through marriage" and the observed socio-economic 
characteristics.
	        
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