This paper examines the role of marriage markets in explaining racial differences in the timing of marriage. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, evidence is presented on the magnitude and significance of differences in the timing of first marriage between whites and blacks in the United States. Further, by matching the 1980 U.S. census to the longitudinal data, the effect on the marriage decision of a variety of measures of the marriage market is examined. This paper examines marriage markets defined at various levels of geographic aggregation, alternative definitions of what males are considered “marriageable,” market variables that control for the education level of the participants, and changes over time in marriage markets. One of the primary results of the experimentation with various definitions is that, relative to the local level, the variables defined at the state level are able to account for more of the racial differences in the timing of marriage. The paper concludes with an examination of this issue and reveals evidence that suggests that measurement error in the variables defined at the local level may be underlying this result.

Michael J. Brien is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Virginia. He is particularly indebted to Seth Sanders for many helpful discussions. Dan Black graciously provided the FBI crime statistics that are used in the paper and offered very useful suggestions. The author also wishes to thank Mark Bergen, William Johnson, Lee Lillard, Steven Stern, Todd Stinebrickner, Robert Willis, and two anonymous referees for their comments on this work. Patrick Yott of the Social Science Data Center at the University of Virginia provided several of the data extracts used in the paper. The author takes responsibility for all remaining errors. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning in May 1998 through April 2001 from Michael J. Brien, Department of Economics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903.