Tying the Double-Knot: The Role of Assets in Marriage Commitment
American Economic Review · 2017 · Volume 107 · Issue 5
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Household Saving, Personal Finance, Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions, Marriage, Marital Dissolution, Family Structure, Domestic Abuse, Family and Personal Law
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