The Patterns Behind Change

This chapter argues that the European Marriage Pattern (EMP) played a fundamental role in western Europe’s economic development. The EMP emerged in northwestern Europe in the late medieval period as a result of the Catholic Church’s promotion of marriage based on consensus, the rise of labor markets, and specific institutions concerning property transfers between generations that encouraged wage labor by women. This combination of factors resulted in a demographic regime embedded in a highly commercial environment, in which households interacted frequently with labor, capital, and commodity markets. The authors also discuss possible long-term consequences for human capital formation and institution building, which are elaborated upon in later chapters of the book.