MPC Member Publications

This database contains a listing of population studies publications written by MPC Members. Anyone can add a publication by an MPC student, faculty, or staff member to this database; new citations will be reviewed and approved by MPC administrators.

Full Citation

Title: Economic, Demographic, and Anthropometric Correlates of First Marriage in the Mid Nineteenth-Century United States

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2006

Abstract: Despite its importance for the economic and demographic history of the nineteenth-century United States, there are few published estimates of the timing and incidence of marriage and no published studies of its correlates before 1890, when the Census Office first tabulated marital status by age, sex, and nativity. In this article, I rely on the 1860 IPUMS census sample to construct national and regional estimates of white nuptiality by nativity and sex and to test theories of marriage timing. I supplement this analysis with two new public use samples of Civil War soldiers. The Gould sample, collected by the United States Sanitary Commission between 1863 and 1865, allows me to test whether height and body mass influenced white mens propensity to marry. Finally, a sample of Union Army recruits linked to the 1860 census, created as part of the Early Indicators of Later Work Levels, Disease, and Death project, allows me to combine suspected economic, demographic, and anthropometric correlates of marriage into a multivariate model of never-married white mens entrance into first marriage. The results indicate that nuptiality was moderately higher in 1860 than it was in 1890. In contrast to previous studies, which emphasize the primary importance of land availability and farm prices, I find that single womens opportunity to participate in the paid labor force was the most important determinant of marriage timing. I also find modest support for the hypothesis that height affected mens propensity to marry, consistent with the theory that body size was a sign to potential marriage partners of future earnings capacity and health.

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Authors: Hacker, David J

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Institution: University of Chicago

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IPUMS NHGIS NAPP IHIS ATUS Terrapop