ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the link between socioeconomic development and age at first marriage and focuses on eight Latin American countries. It examines the historical evidence about marriage patterns in Latin America and critically analyses their possible influence on long-term growth. The chapter also examines the question of whether the European marriage pattern can be used to help analyse women's empowerment in Latin America. It inspects women's age at first marriage, mainly in the second half of the twentieth century, in selected Latin American countries. The evidence from Latin America shows that the average age at contracting marriage in the second half of the twentieth century remained relatively low, in contrast to the Western European marriage pattern. In Argentina and Uruguay, the relation between age at marriage and economic growth can probably be better explained by the expansion of social spending and the progress of women's rights.
