More choice for men? Marriage patterns after World War II in Italy

Abstract We investigate how changes in the sex ratio induced by World War II affected bargaining patterns of Italian men marriage market. Marriage data from first wave Household Longitudinal Survey (1997) are matched with newly digitized information on war casualties coming National Bureau Statistics. find that post-war marriages were better off terms their spouse's education, this gain amounting to about half a year schooling. By considering heterogeneity across provinces, we effects more pronounced rural mountainous and provinces higher share population employed agriculture. This result suggests these caused fundamental change compared urban, lower-lying, less agricultural where markets might have been flexible begin with.