J Popul Econ (1990) 3:193-213 --Journal of Population Economics © Springer-Verlag 1990 On marriage-specific human capital* Its role as a determinant of remarriage Carmel U. Chiswick and Evelyn L. Lehrer University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Economics, Box 4348, Chicago, IL 60680, USA Received November 9, 1989 / Accepted July 2, 1990 Abstract. This paper develops a model of remarriage for women with par- ticular emphasis on the role of investments in marriage-specific human capital. A distinction is made between marriage-specific skills that are transferable across marriages and those that are specific to a particular spouse. It is hypothesized that transferable marriage-specific skills constitute an asset and a major component of gains from marriage for previously mar- ried women. A high level of such skills is expected to be associated with fast remarriage. The presence of children is expected to delay remarriage, because it indicates lower levels of past and future investments that would be relevant to a new partnership. These hypotheses are examined using Cox-regression techniques with data on white and black women from the 1982 National Survey of Family Growth. The empirical results are consistent with the hy- potheses. A systematic pattern of race differentials is uncovered, which can be interpreted within the context of the model. I. Introduction A substantial body of literature on the economics of family formation and dissolution has been accumulating in recent years (Becker 1974, 1981; Sawhill et al. 1975; Becker et al. 1977; Michael 1979; Lehrer 1988). Most work to date, how- ever, has focused on first marriage and dissolution, with relatively little attention paid to second marriages. This paper focuses on the determinants of the likelihood and timing of remarriage for women: which characteristics of women and their first unions are conducive to quick remarriage and which are associated with low remarriage probabilities? * We gratefully acknowledge helpful comments and suggestions by anonymous referees and by par- ticipants of the Economic Demography Workshop at NORC and the Human Resources Workshop at the University of Illinois at Chicago.