Hit or Mrs: Impacts of Changes in Marriage Law

In 1957 the state of Mississippi amended its marriage law. Changes included raising the minimum age for men and women, parental consent, compulsory blood tests and proof of age. As a result, the number of marriages performed in Mississippi fell by more than 60 percent in 2 years. This paper examines the impact of the change in marriage law on marriage rates, fertility and educational attainment of women. We find that black marriage rates were affected more than white marriage rates. Among blacks women there was a decline in fertility and greater educational attainment in the group that was affected by the law. For whites, the results are mixed. There is weak evidence towards a decline in fertility and increase in educational attainment. However, among whites we find an upward trend in illegitimate births starting in the same time period. † YALE UNIVERSITY E-mail address: prashant.bharadwaj[at]yale.edu. Date: February 2007. I thank Fabian Lange and Michael Boozer for helpful comments. Dick Johnson was instrumental in obtaining historical data from Mississippi. Much thanks to Hrithik Bansal for assistance with the data.