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Marriage, Divorce and Interstate Risk Sharing

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Martin Halla
  • Johann Scharler

Abstract

In this paper we study the importance of marriage for interstate risk sharing. We find that US states in which married couples account for a higher share of the population are less exposed to state-specific output shocks. Thus, marriages do not just improve the allocation of risk at the individual level, but also have implications for the allocation of risk at the more aggregated state-level. Quantitatively, the impact of marriage on interstate risk sharing varies over divorce regimes.

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File URL: http://www.labornrn.at/wp/wp0803.pdf
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Paper provided by The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria in its series NRN working papers with number 2008-03.

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Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2008
Handle: RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2008_03
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NRN Labor Economics and the Welfare State, c/o Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, Altenbergerstr. 69, 4040 Linz

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Keywords: Risk sharing; marriage; divorce; family law;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
  • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
  • K36 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Family and Personal Law
  • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

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Cited by:

  1. Donni, Olivier, 2014. "Over-investment in marriage-specific capital," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 34-43.
  2. Tammi, Timo, 2013. "Dictator game giving and norms of redistribution: Does giving in the dictator game parallel with the supporting of income redistribution in the field?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 44-48.
  3. Asdrubali, Pierfederico & Tedeschi, Simone & Ventura, Luigi, 2015. "Household Risksharing Channels," MPRA Paper 65906, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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