Trends and patterns of age hypogamy in France, Mexico and the United States: what drives partner choice with respect to age?

Nikolai Botev, UN Economic Commission for Europe

This paper will study the trends and patterns of age hypogamy (i.e. wife-older marriages) in France, Mexico and USA over the period 1970 to 2000. The objective is to investigate the influence of different social and cultural contexts on the patterns of partner choice with respect to age. The study will also look into the broader social implications of these patterns, specifically on how they affect (and are affected by) gender relations in a society, or their influence on living arrangements in old age. Finally the study will try to evaluate the extent to which the data fit the main mate selection theories (e.g. the sexual strategies theory, the social roles theory). Using census samples from the IPUMS International project, the analysis will be based on complementary log log models to elucidate the significance of a series of covariates on the trends and patterns of age hypogamy.