Marriage Markets Across Countries

The study of age at marriage and differential age at marriage between men and women is important for social security researchers and actuaries involved in the design of second-to-die life insurance policies and last survivor annuities, or in the pricing of healthcare policies such as nursing home and long-term care. Marriage patterns vary within and across regions; they have changed significantly across time and across countries. People today have more freedom in choosing marriage partners and may have more opportunities to dissolve marriage. The mean age at marriage is increasing in nearly all regions of the world. The difference between male and female age at marriage tends to decrease. The four main hypotheses for this trend are economic modernization, changes in demand and supply, in social and cultural influences, and in healthcare and longevity risk sharing. In this research, we test these four hypotheses. We perform a cross-country regression analysis of the timing and prevalence of marriage, using 54 explanatory variables from 156 countries in six regions. The main dependent variables are female mean age at marriage and gender difference in mean age at marriage.