dahl for example finds that teenage marriage leads to increased risk of poverty for young women in the fiiture several researchers have however suggested that the relationship may work in the opposite direction with the falling rate of marriage resulting from the poor economic prospects of lowskilled men blau et al other studies have linked declining marriage rates to rising inequality gould and paserman while improving employment and earnings opportunities for women has further reduced the incentives for women to marry lundberg and poliak however there is very little evidence that marriage would lead to better outcomes if cohabiting couples were to marry