Desperate Housewives? Communication Difficulties and the Dynamics of Marital (Un)Happiness

Thompson, Peter

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02184.x

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(91 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Communication difficulties play a vital role in marriage unhappiness and communications-related issues are cited much more often as causes for divorce than external issues, including economic ones ( Thompson, 2008 ). To better understand potential issues with communication, we analyzed the language that respondents used to answer open ended questions to our survey.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family Life in Lockdown

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The lockdown imposed following the COVID-19 pandemic of spring 2020 dramatically changed the daily lives and routines of millions of people worldwide. We analyze how such changes contributed to patterns of activity within the household using a novel survey of Italian, British, and American families in lockdown. A high percentage report disruptions in the patterns of family life, manifesting in new work patterns, chore allocations, and household tensions. Though men have taken an increased share of childcare and grocery shopping duties, reallocations are not nearly as stark as disruptions to work patterns might suggest, and families having to reallocate duties report greater tensions. Our results highlight tightened constraints budging up against stable and gendered patterns of intra-household cooperation norms. While the long-run consequences of the COVID-19 lockdown on family life cannot be assessed at this stage, we point toward the likely opportunities and challenges.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family Life in Lockdown

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…2 In order to continue with analytical rather than computational analysis, and especially to derive an expression for the hazard of new business formation as a function of time, I impose a form of myopia where the entrepreneur ignores the option value of remaining one more period with the current business. This approximation has been employed in similar problems by Jovanovic (1979), Thompson (2008b), and Thompson and Chen (2009). This implies the entrepreneur will form a new business at time t if 5which yields the approximate critical value…”

Section: The Model (1) Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Selection and Serial Entrepreneurs

Chen

2011

AMPROC

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper develops and tests a model that explains entry into serial entrepreneurship and the performance of serial entrepreneurs as the result of selection on innate ability. The model supposes that agents establish businesses with imperfect information about their entrepreneurial ability and the profitability of business ideas. Agents continually observe signals with which they update their beliefs, and this process eventually determines their next business choice. Selection on ability induces a positive correlation between entrepreneurial experience (measured by previous business earnings and founding experience) and serial business formation, as well as its subsequent performance. The predictions in the model are tested using panel data from the NLSY79. The analysis permits a distinction to be made between selection on innate ability and learning by doing.

show abstract

“…In the same order of ideas, Thompson (2008) suggested that communication difficulties can put a marriage at risk, and quoted empirical evidence of this phenomenon.…”

Section: Happiness Gaps and Divorce In The Economic Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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

2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Desperate Housewives? Communication Difficulties and the Dynamics of Marital (Un)Happiness

Cited by 14 publications

References 59 publications

Family Life in Lockdown

Family Life in Lockdown

Selection and Serial Entrepreneurs

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

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About