The European Marriage Pattern and Its Measurement

Abstract

We review different interpretations of the European Marriage Pattern (EMP) and explore how they relate to the discussion of the link between the EMP and economic growth. Recently Dennison and Ogilvie have argued that the EMP did not contribute to growth in Early Modern Europe. We argue that the link between the EMP and economic growth is incorrectly conceptualized. Age of marriage is not a good scale for the degree to which countries were characterized by EMP. Rather, the economic effects of the EMP should be seen in the broader context of how marriage responds to changing economic circumstance.

Historical family systems and contemporary developmental outcomes: what is to be gained from the historical census microdata revolution?

“…Greif, 2006;Duranton, Rodríguez-Pose, & Sandall, 2009;De Moor & Van Zanden, 2010;Foreman-Peck, 2011;Dennison & Ogilvie, 2014Bertocchi & Bozzano, 2015;Carmichael et al, 2016a;Rijpma & Carmichael, 2016;Carmichael & Rijpma, 2017;Dilli, 2017;Le Bris, 2016;Szołtysek, Poniat, Klüsener, & Gruber, 2017a;Santos Silva, Alexander, Klasen, & Welzel, 2017; earlier also Reher, 1998;Therborn, 2004). Given the sheer complexity of the problem at stake, it is not surprising that this new emerging literature has already provoked a considerable amount of controversy, involving debates on the precise underlying mechanisms, the role of non-familial institutions and the possibility of reversed causality (Dennison & Ogilvie, 2014Carmichael, De Pleijt, Van Zanden, & De Moor, 2016b). However, a major challenge faced by all previous studies was that they had to work around a lack of reliable historical data.…”

Human capital formation in the long run: evidence from average years of schooling in England, 1300–1900

“…Subsequently, however, Dennison and Ogilvie's results have not remained unchallenged. Carmichael et al (2016) have argued that they did not conceptualise the European Marriage Pattern correctly. The focus of Dennison and Ogilvie was on the share of singles, the age of marriage of females and the share of nuclear families, whereas attention should be on the broader context of how marriage responds to economic circumstances (see Carmichael et al 2016;Dennison and Ogilvie 2016).…”

“…Carmichael et al (2016) have argued that they did not conceptualise the European Marriage Pattern correctly. The focus of Dennison and Ogilvie was on the share of singles, the age of marriage of females and the share of nuclear families, whereas attention should be on the broader context of how marriage responds to economic circumstances (see Carmichael et al 2016;Dennison and Ogilvie 2016). 21 The big puzzle of this paper is, however, why the observed rising trend in human capital suddenly broke off and why, during the greater part of the eighteenth century, levels of schooling showed decline.…”

Marriage or Cohabitation? A Survey of Students’ Attitudes in Greece

“…Young people especially -and particularly college and university studentsexplore new trends and alternative ways of companionship, such as cohabitation, in order to discover whether they can deal with conflict with, as well as commitment to, another person (Glick and Spanier, 1980). Nevertheless, cohabitation does not constitute a sufficient preparation for marriage (Olson, 1972;De Moor and Van Zanden, 2010;Beaujouan and Ni Bhrolchain, 2011;Carmichael et al, 2016). Rather, it is an alternative to marriage, as premarital sexual activity has led to an increase in the proportion of couples who live together and share a home out of wedlock.…”