Health and Marriage: Selection, Protection, and Assortative Mating
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Nezih Guner, CEMFI; Yuliya Kulikova, Bank of Spain; Joan Llull, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, MOVE, and Barcelona GSE
Version: View help for Version V1
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application/zip | 44.5 MB | 02/21/2018 06:43:AM |
Project Citation:
Guner, Nezih, Kulikova, Yuliya, and Llull, Joan. Health and Marriage: Selection, Protection, and Assortative Mating. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-02-21. https://doi.org/10.3886/E101423V1
Project Description
Summary:
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Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), we analyze the health gap between married and unmarried individuals of working-age. Controlling for observables, we find a gap that peaks at 10 percentage points at ages 55-59 years. The marriage health gap is similar for men and women. If we allow for unobserved heterogeneity in innate health (permanent and age-dependent), potentially correlated with timing and likelihood of marriage, we find that the effect of marriage on health disappears below age 40 years, while about 5~percentage points difference between married~and unmarried individuals remains at older ages (55-59 years). This~indicates that the observed gap is mainly driven by selection into marriage at younger ages, but there might be a protective effect of marriage at older ages. Exploring the mechanisms behind this result, we find that better innate health is associated with a higher probability of marriage and a lower probability of divorce, and there is strong assortative mating among couples by innate health. We also find that married individuals are more likely to have a healthier behavior compared to unmarried ones. Finally, we find that health insurance is critical for the beneficial effect of marriage.
Scope of Project
Subject Terms:
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PSID
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