Men’s economic status and marital transitions of fragile families

This paper explores whether new mother’s marital expectations are associated with their baby’s father’s economic characteristics, and how such expectations shaped subsequent entry into marriage. Data are from unmarried couples in the Fragile Families Study, corrected with multiple imputation techniques to account for non-response of fathers at the initial survey. Women’s expectations for marriage to the father of their child are high regardless of their partner’s economic characteristics. Those whose partners have some post-secondary schooling are most likely to marry. There is no linear association between men’s earnings and the likelihood of marriage. Standard predictors of marriage for the overall population apply less well for this sample of new parents.