Does broadband lead to a wedding band?

New research that says thanks to the Internet, marriage rates among young people, which have been declining for years, are 15% to 30% higher than they would be without the Web.

The author of the research, Andriana Bellou, says that while previous studies have suggested a correlation between the Internet and the marriage market, her paper goes further, providing 'pretty convincing' evidence 'that it's a causal effect.'

Ms. Bellou, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Montreal, set out her findings in ' The Impact of Internet Diffusion on Marriage Rates: Evidence from the Broadband Market,' a paper for the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn. She studied U.S. data from roughly 1990 to 2006 on the marital status of individuals between 21 and 30 years old from the Current Population Survey, along with Federal Communications Commission reports on the spread of broadband. She found marriage rates were slightly higher among college-educated individuals than those without college degrees.

'In recent decades, we have observed important transformations in the marriage market,' Ms. Bellou said. For one thing, more young people are seeking marriage partners on the Internet, and relying less on family and friends for such introductions.