{"title":"同居VS.婚姻:美国教育背景下的择偶策略","authors":"Fabio Blasutto","doi":"10.1093/jeea/jvad065","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this paper I analyze the determinants of cohabitation, marriage, and divorce in the US. I first document that college graduates are more likely to marry, and less likely to cohabit and divorce, than non-college educated individuals. To account for these facts within a unified framework, I build and estimate a life-cycle model of partnership formation and dissolution where income processes differ by gender and education. I find that the main driver of education-based differences in mating strategies is that the gender wage gap is larger among college graduates. Since divorce is more costly than ending a cohabitation, marriages tend to be more stable and therefore offer women more protection from human capital depreciation during nonemployment. Consequently, marriage is a more effective means of enforcing household specialization. Since college graduates have more room for household specialization, they are more likely to choose marriage. The variance of income shocks, which affects the demand for consumption insurance, is larger among college graduates. Even if the variance of income shocks could potentially explain partnership choices, simulations suggest a small role of income volatility.","PeriodicalId":48297,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the European Economic Association","volume":"40 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Cohabitation <i>VS.</i> Marriage: Mating Strategies by Education in the Usa\",\"authors\":\"Fabio Blasutto\",\"doi\":\"10.1093/jeea/jvad065\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"Abstract In this paper I analyze the determinants of cohabitation, marriage, and divorce in the US. I first document that college graduates are more likely to marry, and less likely to cohabit and divorce, than non-college educated individuals. To account for these facts within a unified framework, I build and estimate a life-cycle model of partnership formation and dissolution where income processes differ by gender and education. I find that the main driver of education-based differences in mating strategies is that the gender wage gap is larger among college graduates. Since divorce is more costly than ending a cohabitation, marriages tend to be more stable and therefore offer women more protection from human capital depreciation during nonemployment. Consequently, marriage is a more effective means of enforcing household specialization. Since college graduates have more room for household specialization, they are more likely to choose marriage. The variance of income shocks, which affects the demand for consumption insurance, is larger among college graduates. Even if the variance of income shocks could potentially explain partnership choices, simulations suggest a small role of income volatility.\",\"PeriodicalId\":48297,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Journal of the European Economic Association\",\"volume\":\"40 3\",\"pages\":\"0\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":3.9000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-11-07\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"2\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Journal of the European Economic Association\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvad065\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"经济学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"ECONOMICS\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of the European Economic Association","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvad065","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
Cohabitation VS. Marriage: Mating Strategies by Education in the Usa
Abstract In this paper I analyze the determinants of cohabitation, marriage, and divorce in the US. I first document that college graduates are more likely to marry, and less likely to cohabit and divorce, than non-college educated individuals. To account for these facts within a unified framework, I build and estimate a life-cycle model of partnership formation and dissolution where income processes differ by gender and education. I find that the main driver of education-based differences in mating strategies is that the gender wage gap is larger among college graduates. Since divorce is more costly than ending a cohabitation, marriages tend to be more stable and therefore offer women more protection from human capital depreciation during nonemployment. Consequently, marriage is a more effective means of enforcing household specialization. Since college graduates have more room for household specialization, they are more likely to choose marriage. The variance of income shocks, which affects the demand for consumption insurance, is larger among college graduates. Even if the variance of income shocks could potentially explain partnership choices, simulations suggest a small role of income volatility.
期刊介绍:
Journal of the European Economic Association replaces the European Economic Review as the official journal of the association. JEEA publishes articles of the highest scientific quality and is an outlet for theoretical and empirical work with global relevance. The journal is committed to promoting the ambitions of the EEA: the development and application of economics as a science, as well as the communication and exchange between teachers, researchers and students in economics.