Replication data for: Tying the Double-Knot: The Role of Assets in Marriage Commitment

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Jeanne Lafortune; Corinne Low

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P2017_1058_data			12/07/2019 12:55:PM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	12/07/2019 07:55:AM

Project Citation:

Lafortune, Jeanne, and Low, Corinne. Replication data for: Tying the Double-Knot: The Role of Assets in Marriage Commitment. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2017. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-12-07. https://doi.org/10.3886/E116318V1

Project Description

Summary: What explains the growing gap in marriage rates between socioeconomic groups? We present a robust stylized fact not previously documented: marriage rates are higher for individuals with more assets. We argue this may be driven by marriage and cohabitation becoming increasingly similar in a number of ways except for the way assets become marital property to be divided upon divorce in marriage while they remain individual property in the case of cohabitation. We propose that ownership of assets may provide "insurance" to the partner making individually costly, but jointly optimal, investments in children, thus raising the value of marriage.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      D14 Household Saving; Personal Finance
      D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
      J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
      K36 Family and Personal Law

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-12-07]

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