IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kud/kuieca/2009_07.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Marriage and Consumption

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Blow

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies, London)

  • Martin Browning

    (Department of Economics, University of Oxford)

  • Mette Ejrnæs

    (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

We examine theoretically and empirically consumption over the early part of the life-cycle. The main focus is on the transition from being single to living with someone else. Our theoretical model allows for publicness in consumption; uncertainty concerning marriage; differences between lifetime incomes for prospective partners and a marriage premium. We develop a two period model to bring out the main features of the impact of marriage on consumption and saving. We then develop a multi-period model that can be taken to the data on expenditures by singles and couples aged between 18 and 30. Our empirical work is based on individual based quasi-panels from UK expenditure survey data from 1978 to 2005. The model fits the data relatively well. We find that expenditure by couples leads to 20-40 % more consumption than the same expenditure split between two comparable singles.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:kud:kuieca:2009_07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.ku.dk/cam/wp0910/2009-07.pdf/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Browning & Pierre-André Chiappori & Arthur Lewbel, 2013. "Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 80(4), pages 1267-1303.
    2. Barry Bosworth & Gary Burtless & John Sabelhaus, 1991. "The Decline in Saving: Evidence from Household Surveys," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(1), pages 183-256.
    3. Grossbard,Shoshana A. (ed.), 2003. "Marriage and the Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521814546.
    4. John Knowles & Nezih Guner, 2007. "Marital Instability and the Distribution of Wealth," 2007 Meeting Papers 785, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    5. Grossbard,Shoshana A. (ed.), 2003. "Marriage and the Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521891431.
    6. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre, 1988. "Rational Household Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(1), pages 63-90, January.
    7. Shintaro Yamaguchi & Claudia Ruiz & Maurizio Mazzocco, 2014. "Labor Supply, Wealth Dynamics and Marriage Decisions," 2014 Meeting Papers 210, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    8. Lupton, J. & Smith, J.P., 1999. "Marriage, Assets, and Savings," Papers 99-12, RAND - Labor and Population Program.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Negrusa, Brighita & Oreffice, Sonia, 2010. "Sexual Orientation and Household Savings: Do Homosexual Couples Save More?," IZA Discussion Papers 4961, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Libertad González & Berkay Özcan, 2013. "The Risk of Divorce and Household Saving Behavior," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 48(2), pages 404-434.
    2. Filippo Pericoli & Luigi Ventura, 2012. "Family dissolution and precautionary savings: an empirical analysis," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 573-595, December.
    3. Chiappori, Pierre-André & Donni, Olivier, 2009. "Non-unitary Models of Household Behavior: A Survey of the Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 4603, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Bertocchi, Graziella & Brunetti, Marianna & Torricelli, Costanza, 2011. "Marriage and other risky assets: A portfolio approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2902-2915, November.
    5. Jens Bonke & Hans Uldall-Poulsen, 2007. "Why do families actually pool their income? Evidence from Denmark," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 113-128, June.
    6. Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen, 2017. "Household Consumption When the Marriage Is Stable," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1507-1534, June.
    7. Robert A. Pollak, 2005. "Bargaining Power in Marriage: Earnings, Wage Rates and Household Production," NBER Working Papers 11239, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Pierre André Chiappori & José Ignacio Gimenez Nadal & José Alberto Molina & Alexandros Theloudis & Jorge Velilla, 2020. "Intrahousehold Commitment and Intertemporal Labor Supply," LISER Working Paper Series 2020-11, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    9. Lucie Schmidt & Purvi Sevak, 2006. "Gender, Marriage, And Asset Accumulation In The United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 139-166.
    10. Olivier Bargain & Miriam Beblo & Denis Beninger & Richard Blundell & Raquel Carrasco & Maria-Concetta Chiuri & François Laisney & Valérie Lechene & Nicolas Moreau & Michal Myck & Javier Ruiz-Castillo , 2006. "Does the Representation of Household Behavior Matter for Welfare Analysis of Tax-benefit Policies? An Introduction," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 99-111, June.
    11. Chiappori, Pierre-André & Donni, Olivier, 2006. "Les modèles non unitaires de comportement du ménage : un survol de la littérature," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 82(1), pages 9-52, mars-juin.
    12. Shoshana Grossbard & Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, 2008. "Cohort-level sex ratio effects on women’s labor force participation," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 309-309, September.
    13. Shoshana Amyra Grossbard & Alfredo Marvao Pereira & Shoshana Grossbard, 2010. "Will Women Save more than Men? A Theoretical Model of Savings and Marriage," CESifo Working Paper Series 3146, CESifo.
    14. Jaime Andres Sarmiento Espinel & Edwin van Gameren, 2016. "A collective household labor supply model with children and non-participation: Theory and empirical application," Serie documentos de trabajo del Centro de Estudios Económicos 2016-11, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos.
    15. Ralph Chami & Gregory Hess, 2005. "For Better or For Worse? State-Level Marital Formation and Risk Sharing," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 367-385, December.
    16. Berkay Özcan, 2011. "Only the lonely? The influence of the spouse on the transition to self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 465-492, November.
    17. Ekaterina Kalugina & Catherine Sofer & Natalia Radtchenko, 2009. "Intra-household inequality in transitional Russia," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 447-471, December.
    18. Ekert-Jaffe, Olivia & Grossbard, Shoshana, 2008. "Does community property discourage unpartnered births?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 25-40, March.
    19. Eva M. Sierminska & Joachim R. Frick & Markus M. Grabka, 2010. "Examining the gender wealth gap," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 62(4), pages 669-690, October.
    20. THELOUDIS Alexandros, 2018. "Wages and Family Time Allocation," LISER Working Paper Series 2018-06, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    marriage; consumption; saving; family economics; economies of scale;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kud:kuieca:2009_07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Hoffmann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/camkudk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.