Assortative Mating and Divorce: Evidence from Austrian Register Data

Frimmel, Wolfgang; Halla, Martin; Winter‐Ebmer, Rudolf

doi:10.1111/j.1467-985x.2012.01070.x

Cited by 30 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…As an illustration, Weiss and Willis (1997) found evidence that couples with similar levels of schooling are more likely to marry and less likely to divorce. Likewise, similarities in terms of age, region of origin, ethnicity, religion, and social background, have been found to be associated with longer durations of marriages (see Frimmel et al, 2009 for a review), an observation that is confirmed in our surveys (see Section 5.3).…”

Section: Assortative Matingsupporting

confidence: 82%

You Can't Be Happier than Your Wife: Happiness Gaps and Divorce

2010

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This paper asks whether a gap in spouses' subjective happiness matters per se, i.e. whether it predicts divorce. We use three large panel surveys to explore this question. Controlling for the life satisfaction levels of spouses, we find that a larger happiness gap, even in the first year of marriage, increases the likelihood of a future separation. This association even holds for couples where both spouses are identified as being better off than in their outside option. We interpret this observation as reflecting a concern for relative utility. To the best of our knowledge, this effect has not been taken into account by any existing economic models of the household.The relationship between happiness gaps and divorce is consistent with the fact that couples who are unable to transfer utility are more at risk than others. It is also possible that assortative mating by happiness baseline level reduces the risk of separation. However, assortative mating cannot entirely explain the finding, as a widening of the happiness gap over time increases the risk of separation. We also uncover an asymmetry in the effect of happiness gaps: couples are more likely to break-up when the difference in life satisfaction is unfavorable to the woman. De facto, divorces appear to be initiated predominantly by women who are less happy than their husband. This asymmetry suggests that the effect of happiness gaps is grounded on motives of relative deprivation, rather than on a preference for equal happiness.The presence of this new argument in spouses' utility is likely to modify their optimal behavior, e.g. in terms of labor supply. It should also be taken into account for public policy measures concerning gender-based labor incentives.

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Section: Assortative Matingsupporting

confidence: 82%

You Can't Be Happier than Your Wife: Happiness Gaps and Divorce

2010

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“…As an illustration, Weiss and Willis (1997) find evidence that couples with similar level of schooling are more likely to marry and less likely to divorce. Likewise, similarity in terms of age, region of origin, ethnicity, religion, and social background have been found to be associated with longer durations of marriages (see Frimmel et al 2009, for a survey), an observation that is confirmed in our surveys (see section 5.1).…”

Section: Assortative Matingsupporting

confidence: 72%

You can’t be happier than your wife. Happiness gaps and divorce

Güven

Senik²,

Stichnoth

2012

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp10007.pdf Non-technical summaryThis paper asks whether the gap in subjective happiness between spouses matters per se for a couple's risk of separation. We use three panel databases to explore this question.Controlling for the level of life satisfaction of spouses, we find that a higher satisfaction gap, even in the first year of marriage, increases the probability of a separation. We show that this basic relationship between the gap in satisfaction and the probability of separation is robust to a number of different specifications. Moreover, the relationship holds in all three countries that we study: Germany, the UK, and Australia.Our interpretation is that this higher separation probability results from comparisons of well-being between spouses and from an aversion to an unequal distribution of wellbeing. While a growing number of studies has already underlined that comparisons affect individual well-being, the advantage of the present article is to focus on a plausible and important reference group, namely one's own spouse. Another contribution of the article is to show that subjective variables (here, the gap in life satisfaction) matter for objectively measured outcomes such as a couple's separation. Finally, we believe that our result is interesting for the theoretical literature on the economics of the household, which has so far neglected the consequences that an unequal distribution of well-being may have.We also explore the hypothesis that it is assortative mating with respect to the baseline level of happiness that affects the risk of separation. We find that it is not only this baseline level, but also the current level of happiness that matters. First, our results hold in fixed-effects estimates that take away the effect of the initial quality of the match between spouses: fixed-effects estimates suggest that a widening of the happiness gap over time raises the risk of separation. Second, we uncover an asymmetry in the effect of happiness gaps: couples are more likely to break up when the difference in life satisfaction is unfavourable to the wife. The information available in the Australian survey reveals that divorces are indeed predominantly initiated by women, and importantly, by women who are unhappier than their husband. Hence, happiness gaps seem to matter to spouses, not only because they reflect a mismatch in terms of baseline happiness, but because th...

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“…9 Finally, I estimate the model on the sample of single-headed households to test for spurious effects of unilateral divorce laws on time spent in leisure, as well as household work and market work. While single-headed households may be affected by unilateral divorce through selection into marriage, if we see similar effects of 9 Since Rotz (2012) and Frimmel et al (2013) show wife's age at marriage to be the primary predictor of the decrease in the divorce rate, wife's age at marriage could be used as an alternative variable to subset the sample into high-risk groups. However, the limited variation in wife's age at marriage among our sample limit the usefulness of this method here.…”

Section: Data and Empirical Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cleaning in the Shadow of the Law? Bargaining, Marital Investment, and the Impact of Divorce Law on Husbands’ Intrahousehold Work

Roff

2017

The Journal of Law and Economics

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world's largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. Terms of use: Documents in

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Assortative Mating and Divorce: Evidence from Austrian Register Data

Cited by 30 publications

References 50 publications

You Can't Be Happier than Your Wife: Happiness Gaps and Divorce

You Can't Be Happier than Your Wife: Happiness Gaps and Divorce

You can’t be happier than your wife. Happiness gaps and divorce

Cleaning in the Shadow of the Law? Bargaining, Marital Investment, and the Impact of Divorce Law on Husbands’ Intrahousehold Work

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