Bonds
Household Search and the Marital Wage Premium
Laura Pilossoph & Shu Lin Wee
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We develop a model where selection into marriage and household search generate a marital wage premium. Beyond selection, married individuals earn higher wages for two reasons. First, income pooling within a joint household raises risk-averse individuals' reservation wages. Second, married individuals climb the job ladder faster, as they internalize that higher wages increase their partner's selectivity over offers. Specialization according to comparative advantage in search generates a premium that increases in spousal education, as in the data. Quantitatively, household search explains 10-33% and 20-58% of the premium for males and females respectively, and accounts for its increase with spousal education.
Older Yet Fairer: How Extended Reproductive Time Horizons Reshaped Marriage Patterns in Israel
Naomi Gershoni & Corinne Low
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Israel’s 1994 adoption of free in vitro fertilization provides a natural experiment for how fertility time horizons impact women’s marriage timing and other outcomes. We find a substantial increase in average age at first marriage following the policy change, using both men and Arab-Israeli women as comparison groups. This shift appears to be driven by both increased marriages by older women and younger women delaying marriage. Age at first birth also increased. Placebo and robustness checks help pinpoint IVF as the source of the change. Our findings suggest age-limited fertility materially impacts women’s life timing and outcomes relative to men.
Simultaneity and selection in financial hardship and divorce
Scott Drewianka & Martin Meder
Review of Economics of the Household, December 2020, Pages 1245–1265
Abstract:
While the correlation between financial hardship and divorce is well-documented, the causality remains unclear: it is plausible that divorce causes hardship, that hardship encourages divorce, or that unobserved factors produce both outcomes. We specify a model that nests these possibilities and estimate it using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. Structural estimates indicate divorce reduces the income/needs ratio in women’s households by 0.35 standard deviations, though this is partially offset by apparent anticipatory labor supply responses. We also find a negative structural error correlation between divorce and income/needs ratios, but no evidence that a change in hardship causes divorce.
Love and war: Prospective associations between relationship distress and incidence of psychiatric disorders in active-duty Army personnel
Mark Whisman et al.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research with probability samples of civilians has found that marital distress is associated with incidence of several psychiatric disorders. However, there is little longitudinal research on marital distress and incidence of psychiatric disorders in military personnel. This study examined the prospective association between marital distress and incidence of major depressive episode (MDE), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorder in a probability sample of active-duty soldiers from the U.S. Army (N = 934). Results indicated that among individuals who did not meet diagnostic criteria for the associated disorder at baseline, marital distress at baseline was associated with 30-day incidence of MDE, GAD, and PTSD assessed 5 years later. These results support continued research on the role of marital distress and the onset and course of psychopathology in active-duty military personnel and suggest that couple-based interventions designed to prevent or reduce marital distress may be effective in the prevention and treatment of psychopathology in military personnel.
Brains, brawn, and beauty: The complementary roles of intelligence and physical aggression in attracting sexual partners
Patrick Seffrin & Patricia Ingulli
Aggressive Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current study compared physical aggression to factors affecting socioeconomic status in the accumulation of sex partners over the life course. Our data sample was drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (men, n = 5,636; women, n = 6,787). Participants were examined in terms of the number of lifetime sex partners they reported, nonrelationship partners, cheating or infidelity, and concurrent relationships. Intelligence and physical violence emerged as being especially likely to boost sex partner accumulation for the number of lifetime sex partners and nonrelationship partners in men. Intelligence also interacted positively with men's violence in cross‐sectional models but not longitudinally. Women's violence was not significant regardless of the outcome or model specification. Intelligence showed less consistent effects for women's mating indicators compared to men. Analyses controlled for well‐known correlates of aggression and sexual behavior and factors associated with beauty, including interviewer reports of survey participants' physical attractiveness and maturity, as well as self‐reported attractiveness, maturity, and health. Findings are consistent with evolutionary ideas regarding costly signaling as an effective mating strategy among men.
If your girl only knew: The effects of infidelity-themed song lyrics on cognitions related to infidelity
Cassandra Alexopoulos & Laramie Taylor
Psychology of Popular Media, forthcoming
Abstract:
An experiment was conducted to test whether positive or negative portrayals of infidelity in hip-hop song lyrics influence attitudes and intentions toward infidelity, as well as the role of attachment orientation in interpreting those lyrics. Specifically, we examined whether these portrayals affect intentions to commit infidelity, the tendency to justify infidelity, and the tolerance of a partner’s infidelity. Findings revealed that women who were exposed to negative consequences of infidelity in hip-hop music were more tolerant of a partner’s infidelity than women who were exposed to positive consequences. Participants’ attachment orientation moderated the effects of exposure to infidelity on all three outcome variables. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.