Why do some U.S. states have higher levels of marital formation than others? This paper introduces an economic model wherein a state’s representative individual may choose to marry in order to diversify his or her idiosyncratic income risk. The paper demonstrates that such a diversification motive is enhanced for some utility functions when a state’s level of undiversifiable risk becomes larger, and when a state’s initial income is lower. A test of the model’s predictions, using cross-sectional data for the 50 U.S. states, provides some suggestive evidence for a risk sharing motive in marriage formation and joint spouse labor participation. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2005
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Volume (Year): 3 (2005) Issue (Month): 4 (December) Pages: 367-385 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
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Martin Halla & Johann Scharler, 2008.
"Marriage, Divorce and Interstate Risk Sharing,"
NRN working papers
2008-03, The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
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