@article{171,
  keywords = {Family structure and stability, Child behavior, Brain and cognitive development},
  author = {Shirley Liu and Frank Heiland},
  title = {Should We Get Married? The Effect of Parents{\textquoteright} Marriage on Out-of-Wedlock Children},
  abstract = {<p>Using a representative sample of children all born to unwed parents drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and a potential outcome approach to account for self-selection into marriage, we investigate whether marriage after childbearing has a causal effect on early child development. Comparing children with similar background characteristics and parental mate-selection patterns who differ only in terms of whether their parents marry after childbirth, we find that marriage after childbirth significantly increases a child{\textquoteright}s early cognitive performance but there is no evidence that it affects child asthma risk or behavioral outcomes.</p>
},
  year = {2010},
  journal = {Economic Inquiry},
  volume = {50},
  number = {1},
  pages = {17-38},
  url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2010.00248.x/full},
}