The marriage gap: Optimal aging and death in partnerships

Abstract

Married people live longer than singles but how much of the longevity differential is causal and what the particular mechanisms are is not fully understood. In this paper we propose a new approach, based on counterfactual computational experiments, in order to asses how much of the marriage gap can be explained by public-goods sharing and collective bargaining of partners with different preferences and biology. For that purpose we integrate cooperative decision making of a couple into a biologically-founded life-cycle model of health deficit accumulation and endogenous longevity. We calibrate the model with U.S. data and perform the counterfactual experiment of preventing the partnership. We elaborate three economic channels and find that, as singles, men live 8.5 months shorter and women 6 months longer. We conclude that about 30% of the marriage gain in longevity of men can be motivated by economic calculus while the marriage gain for women observed in the data is attributed to selection or other (non-standard economic) motives.

Men building better relationships: A scoping review

“…The influence of men's relationships on their health and the health of others has emerged as a key consideration for research, services and policy 1 . In terms of positives, longstanding commentaries indicate that partnered men live longer than single men, 2–4 while social connectedness has featured as a protective agent against male suicide 5,6 . Implicit to this work is the logic that a loving partnership and healthy social relationships afford men (and the people near to them) ‘better’ overall health 7 .…”

Pathways and Patterns for Communication with Intimate Partners: Men’s Retrospectives After a Relationship Breakdown

“…That partnered men live longer than single men (Schünemann et al 2020) and distressed and disrupted (i.e., separation, divorce) relationships pose serious mental illness challenges including male suicidality (Oliffe et al 2022;Kõlves et al 2011) underscores the need for upstream relationship programs. A recent review (Oliffe et al 2021a) recommended relationship research be completed to transition gendered insights about men's intimate partner communication toward IPV and/or DV prevention programs.…”

Life Cycle Economics with Infectious and Chronic Diseases

“…6 The original health deficit model by Dalgaard and Strulik (2014) focussed on the relationship between income and life expectancy. The framework has been extended and applied to various health economic problems like the historical evolution of years spent in retirement (Dalgaard and Strulik, 2017), the effects of health care rationing on life expectancy (Boehm et al, 2021), health and welfare effects of pension reforms in presence of a socioeconomic health gradient (Grossmann et al, 2021), addiction and self-control (Strulik, 2018(Strulik, , 2019a, and the life expectancy gaps across gender and marriage status (Schünemann et al, 2017a(Schünemann et al, , 2020. However, the literature has so far ignored how the life course of infections influences the development of chronic health deficits and how pre-existing chronic conditions affect the susceptibility to infections.…”