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The Role of Cohabitation in Asset and Debt Accumulation During Marriage

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  • Matthew Painter
  • Jonathan Vespa

Abstract

Research has found that married individuals who cohabited only once before marriage with their future spouse (i.e., “spousal cohabiters”) have a distinctive financial advantage: they accumulate more wealth over time than individuals who married without ever cohabiting (i.e., “directly married”). Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and growth curve models, the present study attempts to identify the source of spousal cohabiters’ wealth advantage. We find that marriage is associated with gains for financial and nonfinancial wealth, increasing home equity, and decreasing debt over time. Spousal cohabiters begin marriage with more debt than the directly married. Conditional on education, income, and other key factors, spousal cohabiters pay down their debt faster and generate greater home equity over time thereby accumulating more wealth than the directly married. This pattern of financial behavior among spousal cohabiters explains some, but not all, of their financial advantage over married persons who never cohabited prior to marrying. Given the increasing prevalence of cohabitation among young adults, these results offer important insights into the long-term economic outcomes associated with premarital cohabitation. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

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  • Matthew Painter & Jonathan Vespa, 2012. "The Role of Cohabitation in Asset and Debt Accumulation During Marriage," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 491-506, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:33:y:2012:i:4:p:491-506
    DOI: 10.1007/s10834-012-9310-7
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    2. Philipp M. Lersch, 2017. "The Marriage Wealth Premium Revisited: Gender Disparities and Within-Individual Changes in Personal Wealth in Germany," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(3), pages 961-983, June.
    3. Fenaba R. Addo, 2017. "Financial Integration and Relationship Transitions of Young Adult Cohabiters," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 84-99, March.
    4. Brandan E. Wheeler & Cecilia Brooks, 2023. "Financial Concerns, Relationship Happiness, and Financial Management Behaviors: A Moderating Relationship Among Married and Cohabiting Respondents," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 325-341, June.
    5. Rory Coulter & Michael Thomas, 2019. "A new look at the housing antecedents of separation," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(26), pages 725-760.
    6. Adrianne Frech & Matthew Painter & Jonathan Vespa, 2017. "Marital Biography and Mothers’ Wealth," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 279-292, June.
    7. Jeffrey Dew, 2021. "Ten Years of Marriage and Cohabitation Research in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 52-61, July.

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