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Marriage and consumption insurance: what's love got to do with it?

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Author Info
Gregory D. Hess

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Abstract

This paper explores marriage’s role when markets are incomplete and individuals cannot diversify their idiosyncratic labor income risk. All else being equal, an individual would rather marry a “hedge” (a person whose income is negatively correlated with her own) because doing so raises her expected utility. However, the existence of love complicates the picture: Although marrying a hedge is important, an individual may not do so if she finds someone with whom she shares a great deal of love. Is love more important to a lasting marriage than economic compatibility? To answer this question, the author develops a simple model in which rational individuals meet, enjoy marriage’s economic and nonpecuniary benefits (i.e., love), and then must decide whether to remain married or divorce.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland in its series Working Paper with number 0104.

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Length: 1-43
Date of creation: 2001
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcwp:0104

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Keywords: Consumption (Economics);

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
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.:
  1. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Avia Spivak, 1979. "The Family as an Incomplete Annuities Market," NBER Working Papers 0362, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Johansen, Soren & Juselius, Katarina, 1990. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Inference on Cointegration--With Applications to the Demand for Money," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 52(2), pages 169-210, May.
  3. Gregory D. Hess & Kwanho Shin, 1999. "Risk sharing of disaggregate macroeconomic and idiosyncratic shocks," Working Paper 9915, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
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  4. Hausman, Jerry A, 1978. "Specification Tests in Econometrics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(6), pages 1251-71, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Kiefer, Nicholas M, 1988. "Economic Duration Data and Hazard Functions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 646-79, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. David K. Backus & Patrick J. Kehoe & Finn E. Kydland, 1991. "International real business cycles," Staff Report 146, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Hess, Gregory D. & Shin, Kwanho, 1998. "Intranational business cycles in the United States," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 289-313, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Cochrane, John H, 1991. "A Simple Test of Consumption Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(5), pages 957-76, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Mace, Barbara J, 1991. "Full Insurance in the Presence of Aggregate Uncertainty," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(5), pages 928-56, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Ogaki, Masao & Zhang, Qiang, 2001. "Decreasing Relative Risk Aversion and Tests of Risk Sharing," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 515-26, March.
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  11. Murphy, Kevin M & Topel, Robert H, 1985. "Estimation and Inference in Two-Step Econometric Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 3(4), pages 370-79, October.
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Full references

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.)

  1. Ralph Chami & Gregory Hess, 2002. "For Better or For Worse? State-Level Marital Formation and Risk Sharing," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Martin Halla & Johann Scharler, 2008. "Marriage, Divorce and Interstate Risk Sharing," Economics working papers 2008-16, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Martin Browning & Laura Blow & Mette Ejrnaes, 2009. "Marriage and consumption," Economics Series Working Papers 427, University of Oxford, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
    • Laura Blow & Martin Browning & Mette Ejrnæs, 2009. "Marriage and Consumption," CAM Working Papers 2009-07, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Michael Svarer & Helena Skyt Nielsen, 2006. "Educational Homogamy: Preferences or Opportunities?," Economics Working Papers 2006-10, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Oddbjørn Raaum & Bernt Bratsberg & Knut Røed & Eva Österbacka & Tor Eriksson & Markus Jäntti & Robin Naylor, 2007. "Marital Sorting, Household Labor Supply, and Intergenerational Earnings Mobility across Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 3037, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. John M. Nunley, 2007. "The Effects of Household Income Volatility on Divorce," Working Papers 200718, Middle Tennessee State University, Department of Economics and Finance. [Downloadable!]
  7. Nzinga Broussard & Ralph Chami & Gregory Hess, 2003. "(Why) Do Self-Employed Parents Have More Children?," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  8. repec:bep:eapadv:v:7:y:2008:i:2:p:1767-1767 is not listed on IDEAS
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