Cohabitation vs. Marriage: Mating Strategies by Education in The USA
中文摘要
本文分析了美国同居、婚姻和离婚的决定因素。我首先记录到，与非大学受教育者相比，大学毕业生更可能结婚，更不可能同居和离婚。为了在一个统一框架内解释这些事实，我构建并估计了一个伴侣关系形成与解体的生命周期模型，其中收入过程因性别和教育水平而异。我发现，基于教育的择偶策略差异的主要驱动因素是，大学毕业生中的性别工资差距更大。由于离婚比结束同居成本更高，婚姻往往更稳定，因此为女性在非就业期间提供了更多免受人力资本折旧的保护。因此，婚姻是强化家庭专业化更有效的手段。由于大学毕业生有更大的家庭专业化空间，他们更可能选择婚姻。影响消费保险需求的收入冲击方差，在大学毕业生中也更大。即使收入冲击方差潜在地可以解释伴侣选择，模拟也表明收入波动的作用很小。
Abstract
Abstract In this paper, I analyze the determinants of cohabitation, marriage, and divorce in the USA. I first document that college graduates are more likely to marry, and less likely to cohabit and divorce, than non-college educated individuals. To account for these facts within a unified framework, I build and estimate a life-cycle model of partnership formation and dissolution where income processes differ by gender and education. I find that the main driver of education-based differences in mating strategies is that the gender wage gap is larger among college graduates. Since divorce is more costly than ending a cohabitation, marriages tend to be more stable and therefore offer women more protection from human capital depreciation during non-employment. Consequently, marriage is a more effective means of enforcing household specialization. Since college graduates have more room for household specialization, they are more likely to choose marriage. The variance of income shocks, which affects the demand for consumption insurance, is larger among college graduates. Even if the variance of income shocks could potentially explain partnership choices, simulations suggest a small role of income volatility.