Work

Marriage and divorce: the role of unemployment insurance

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: This paper examines how changes in household-level risk sharing affect the marriage market. We use as our laboratory a German unemployment insurance (UI) reform that tightened means-testing based on the partner’s income. The reduced generosity of UI increased the demand for household-level risk sharing, which lowered the attractiveness of individuals exposed to unemployment risk. Because unemployment risk correlates with non-German nationality, our main finding is that the UI reform led to a decrease in intermarriage. The 2004 expansion of the European Union had a comparable effect on intermarriage for the affected nationalities. Both reforms increased marital stability, which is consistent with better selection by couples.

Source: Journal of Population Economics

DOI: 10.1007/s00148-023-00961-1

Authors: Bastian Schulz, Fabian Siuda

Institutions: Aarhus University, Vienna University of Economics and Business

Language: English

Topic: Family Dynamics and Relationships

Subfield: Demography

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Reduced inequalities, No poverty

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,990