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The Marital Satisfaction of Differently-Aged Couples

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  • Lee, Wang-Sheng

    (Monash University)

  • McKinnish, Terra

    (University of Colorado, Boulder)

Abstract

We investigate how the marital age gap affects the evolution of marital satisfaction over the duration of marriage using household panel data from Australia. We find that men tend to be more satisfied with younger wives and less satisfied with older wives. Interestingly, women likewise tend to be more satisfied with younger husbands and less satisfied with older husbands. Marital satisfaction declines with marital duration for both men and women in differently-aged couples relative to those in similarly-aged couples. These relative declines erase the initial higher levels of marital satisfaction experienced by men married to younger wives and women married to younger husbands within 6 to 10 years of marriage. A possible mechanism is that differently-aged couples are less resilient to negative shocks compared to similarly-aged couples, which we find some supportive evidence for.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Wang-Sheng & McKinnish, Terra, 2017. "The Marital Satisfaction of Differently-Aged Couples," IZA Discussion Papers 10863, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10863
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    Cited by:

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    5. Anna Aizer & Shari Eli & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2020. "The Incentive Effects of Cash Transfers to the Poor," NBER Working Papers 27523, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Songtao Yang, 2022. "The effects of compulsory schooling reforms on women’s marriage outcomes—evidence from Britain," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 1637-1662, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    marital satisfaction; marital duration; marital age gap; assortative matching;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

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