On marriage and migration
Stark, O.
European Journal of Population 4(1): 23-37
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0168-6577 PMID: 12158993 DOI: 10.1007/bf01797105Document Number: 356495
Marriage, migration, and related phenomena such as marital stability, fertility, and investment in human capital may be better explained by studying marriage and migration jointly. This paper examines the role of migration in obtaining joint labor market and marriage market equilibrium. When broadly interpreted, marriage and migration share a number of common features. Both involve search and its resolution (pairing of mates in the former and matching of labor and firms in the latter). In both cases, success in finding a partner is sensitive to the availability of partners and to the distribution of their endowments and traits. Almost always, and along with separation and divorce, marriage mandates spatial relocation which may translate into migration. Both involve a movement that is associated with adjustment costs from 1 state into another. The decisions to enter marriage and undertake employment or the decisions to divorce and quit a job depend on exogenous parameters, some of which are determined by the marriage market and the labor market. Since both marriage and divorce take place in the context of broadly defined markets, they may and often are analyzed applying market concepts, theorems, and solutions. Yet the authors could not pinpoint 1 single, systematic attempt that checks through the interactions between marriage and migration, so this paper attempts to rectify this state of research. Essentially, this paper 1) discusses individual decision making pending possible migration prior to or following marriage, 2) examines whether it is easier for a married couple or a single person to migrate, and 3) considers whether marriage dissolution could cause migration when marriage is the only reason that has kept a spouse from moving. This integrated research agenda for both marriage and migration can delineate interesting new implications to examine.
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