Desperate Housewives? Communication Difficulties and the Dynamics of Marital (un)Happiness

Economic Journal, 2008, vol. 118, issue 532, pages 1640-1669

Abstract: The quality of a marriage depends on the proximity of a collective action to a unknown target. Individuals receive private signals about the target, and can communicate them only imperfectly to their spouses. Because of imperfect communication, spouses may hold different beliefs about the optimal action. If a couple's beliefs diverge too widely, one or both of them may prefer to dissolve the marriage. The article explores how poor communication contributes to marital unhappiness, as well as its implications for the dynamics of divorce risk, the welfare properties of divorce decisions and the role of counselling. Copyright © The Author(s). Journal compilation © Royal Economic Society 2008.

Date: 2008

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02184.x link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Desperate Housewives? Communication Difficulties and the Dynamics of Marital (un)Happiness (2006)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... al.asp?ref=0013-0133

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Journal is edited by Antonio Ciccone, Leonardo Felli, Steve Machin, Andrew Scott, Steve Pischke and David Myatt

More articles in Economic Journal from Royal Economic Society
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().