Marriage and Health: Selection, Protection, and Assortative Mating

Nezih Guner, Yuliya Kulikova and Joan Llull

Working Papers from CEMFI

Abstract: 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. 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, while about 5 percentage points difference between married and unmarried individuals remains at older (55-59) ages. 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.

Keywords: Health; marriage; innate health; protective effect of marriage; assortative mating; panel data; grouped fixed-effects estimator. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I12 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Marriage and health: Selection, protection, and assortative mating (2018)
Working Paper: Marriage and health: selection, protection, and assortative mating (2017)
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