The Influence of Parental Resources on the Timing of the Transition to Marriage

This paper studies the relationship of parental resources to the marital transitions of children. It extends past research by explicitly distinguishing various dimensions of parental resources and by taking parental preferences directly into account. We test models in which parental resources have additive effects on the timing of marriage and models in which parental resources interact with parents' preferences for the timing of their children's marriages. The analysis shows that both parental financial resources and parental education influence children's marital behavior. Our analysis also demonstrates that parental preferences for their children's age at marriage do matter, but that this influence weakens as the children grow older. Finally, the analysis indicates that the effects of parent's financial resources interact with parent's preferences to affect the timing of their children's transitions to marriage.