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Will you “quasi-marry” me? The rise of cohabitation and decline of marriages

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  • Adamopoulou, Effrosyni

Abstract

In Western Europe and the US, the last couple of decades have witnessed a large increase in the new forms of marriages, usually called quasi-marriages, like cohabitation. Today in many European countries more than 15% of all couples are cohabiting. Furthermore, cohabiting couples differ from married ones. They tend to share household tasks and market works more equally than married couples. The aim of this paper is to account for the rise in cohabitation as well as the cross-sectional differences between cohabiting and married couples. To this end, we build a two-period model of marriage and cohabitation with home production. Using this framework, we analyze, both theoretically and empirically, the effects of the narrowing of the gender wage gap and the improvement in household production technology on the agents’ marital decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Adamopoulou, Effrosyni, 2010. "Will you “quasi-marry” me? The rise of cohabitation and decline of marriages," UC3M Working papers. Economics we1026, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    • Handle: RePEc:cte:werepe:we1026
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Raquel Fernández & Alessandra Fogli & Claudia Olivetti, 2004. "Mothers and Sons: Preference Formation and Female Labor Force Dynamics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(4), pages 1249-1299.
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    Cited by:

    1. Doreen Triebe, 2013. "Wo(men) at Work?: The Impact of Cohabiting and Married Partners' Earning on Women's Work Hours," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 614, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    2. Fabio Blasutto & Egor Kozlov, 2020. "(Changing) Marriage and Cohabitation Patterns in the US: do Divorce Laws Matter?," 2020 Papers pbl245, Job Market Papers.
    3. Adamopoulou, Effrosyni, 2012. "Peer Effects in Young Adults' Marital Decisions," UC3M Working papers. Economics we1228, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    4. Doreen Triebe, 2015. "The Added Worker Effect Differentiated by Gender and Partnership Status: Evidence from Involuntary Job Loss," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 740, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Chirvi, Malte, 2019. "Arbeiten Frauen aufgrund des Ehegattensplittings weniger? Eine empirische Untersuchung für Deutschland," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 241, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    6. Chirvi, Malte, 2017. "Arbeiten Frauen aufgrund des Ehegattensplittings weniger? Ein quasi-experimenteller Ansatz für Deutschland," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 217, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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