"Living in sin" and marriage: A matching model

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"Living in sin" and marriage: A matching model

Author Info

Xinhua Gu () (Department of Economics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. Fax: +1-416-978-6713; e-mail: xinhuagu@chass.utoronto.ca)
Padma Rao Sahib () (SOM Research School and Population Research Centre, University of Groningen, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

This paper develops a two sided matching model of premarital cohabitation and marriage in which premarital cohabitation serves as a period of learning. We solve for the optimal policy to be followed by individuals by treating the model as a three stage dynamic programming problem. We find that couples are more discriminating when forming marital unions than when forming cohabiting unions. Cohabitation unions arise among members of the same "class" and there is overlap between the classes formed by marital unions and cohabiting unions. This implies that some cohabiting unions progress to marriage while others do not, a finding borne out by empirical studies.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal Journal of Population Economics.

Volume (Year): 15 (2002)
Issue (Month): 2 ()
Pages: 261-282
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Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:15:y:2002:i:2:p:261-282

Note: Received: 4 November 1999/Accepted: 4 September 2000
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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search, Learning, and Information
D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

Peter Thompson, 2005. "Desperate Housewives? Communication Difficulties and the Dynamics of Marital (un)Happiness," Working Papers 0515, Florida International University, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2006. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Peter Thompson, 2008. "Desperate Housewives? Communication Difficulties and the Dynamics of Marital (un)Happiness," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(532), pages 1640-1669, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)

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