The Investment Of Marriage: Estimating the Effect of Maternal Marital Choices on Childhood and Young Adult Outcomes.

Abstract

I study the effects of maternal marital status (single, cohabitating, or married) at birth and through childhood on a variety of childhood and young adult outcomes, namely home environment, math scores, reading scores, behavior scores, and college attendance. The initial effects of marital status on math, reading, behavior and college attendance diminishes when characteristics of children, households, and mothers are considered, showing that outcome differences between these groups of children are driven by the characteristics between mothers who chose various marital situations for childbirth. The effects of marital status on home environment persist when characteristics of children, households, and mothers are considered, pointing to a causal link between marriage, cohabitation, and higher home environment quality. While marriage and cohabitation both have positive effects on outcomes, the effect of marriage is consistently higher, showing that marriage and cohabitation are not equivalent family forms. For children of mothers with higher education, marital status at birth appears to have more of an effect on higher education outcomes. Marital status also appears to have more of an effect on behavior for children of Non-Black, Non-Hispanic mothers and to have more of an effect overall on children of Black and Hispanic mothers and children of mothers with lower education.