Assortative mating and divorce: evidence from Austrian register data

We show that changes in assortative mating patterns along the dimensions of age, ethnicity, religion and education are not responsible for the increasing marital instability over the last four decades in Austria. Without the rise in the age at marriage, divorce rates would be considerably higher. Immigration and secularization, and the resulting supply of spouses with diverse ethnicity and religious denominations had no overall effect on divorce rates. Countervailing effects—in line with theoretical predictions–offset each other. The rise in the incidence of divorce is most probably caused by increased social acceptance of divorce.