The relationship between women's education and marriage outcomes

Using 2000 Census data, we describe the relationship between women's education and marriage outcomes. Women's education is strongly related to husband's income and marital status. This relationship is highly nonlinear and varies across the distribution of husband's earnings. Roughly half of the correlation between women's education and consumption operates through the marriage market. Using 1980 Census data and the quarter of birth instruments proposed by Angrist and Krueger, we find that women's education may have a positive causal effect on husband's earnings, though not on probability of marriage.