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Shacking Up or Shelling Out: Income Taxes, Marriage, and Cohabitation

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Author Info
James Alm ()
Leslie Whittington

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Abstract

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the income tax penalty associated with marriage contributes to the decision of a couple to live together as a married vs. a cohabiting couple. In this paper, we use household data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics to estimate the impact of various factors, including the federal individual income tax, on a couple's decision to marry instead of cohabit. We find that the initial decision to form either a cohabiting or a married union is only marginally affected by the income tax consequences of one form of union vs. another, and other factors play a more important role. However, for those already living together as a cohabiting couple, the decision to make the transition from a cohabiting to a married couple is significantly affected by the tax consequences of such a move. Here, an increase in the income tax at legal marriage, or an increase in the marginal tax rate with marriage, has a statistically significant and negative impact on the probability of transition from cohabitation to legal marriage. However, the magnitude of the tax impact is generally small, and several other variables are more important determinants. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2003

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1025093300161
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Publisher Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal Review of Economics of the Household.

Volume (Year): 1 (2003)
Issue (Month): 3 (September)
Pages: 169-186
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Handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:1:y:2003:i:3:p:169-186

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Web page: http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=109451

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Related research
Keywords: marriage tax; marriage subsidy; hazard model;

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Waters, Melissa S. & Ressler, Rand W., 1999. "An economic model of cohabitation and divorce," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 195-206, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Becker, Gary S, 1973. "A Theory of Marriage: Part I," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(4), pages 813-46, July-Aug.. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Alm, James & Whittington, Leslie A, 1995. "Income Taxes and the Marriage Decision," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 25-31, January.
  4. Whittington, Leslie A & Alm, James & Peters, H Elizabeth, 1990. "Fertility and the Personal Exemption: Implicit Pronatalist Policy in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 545-56, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Daniel R. Feenberg & Harvey S. Rosen, 1995. "Recent Developments in the Marriage Tax," NBER Working Papers 4705, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Stacy Dickert-Conlin & Amitabh Chandra, 1999. "Taxes and the Timing of Birth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(1), pages 161-177, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Alm, James & Whittington, Leslie A., 1997. "Income taxes and the timing of marital decisions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 219-240, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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