Using both analysis of the effect of lagged economic and current educational characteristics and analysis of life-course changes in these characteristics, this study provides insights into the theoretical debate concerning the relationships between men´s and women´s economic activity and transition to first marriage. Our findings support the men´s economic stability hypothesis, the search hypothesis and the income pooling hypothesis; and counter the women´s economic independence hypothesis, but only to a certain degree. For men, we find a positive effect of employment stability, and a positive effect of earnings, which increase over time. For women, the effect of the salary has an inverse U shape, and employment stability has positive effect on marriage. Over the life course, we find that men who have a continuum of stable employment have the highest odds of first marriage; while women reduce economic activity in anticipation of or due to marriage. Moreover, marriage is postponed for at least two years after educational accumulation is completed.