Happily ever after? Intrahousehold bargaining and the distribution of utility within marriage

Dirk Bethmann; Robert Rudolf

doi:10.1007/s11150-016-9343-z

Happily ever after? Intrahousehold bargaining and the distribution of utility within marriage

Dirk Bethmann, Robert Rudolf

Department of Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Using a rich longitudinal data set of married couples from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study, this article seeks to uncover the intramarital allocation of experienced utility and its drivers. We find both substantial gains from marriage and effects of relative predicted earnings outside of marriage on relative gains from marriage. These findings are consistent with cooperative bargaining models and with models viewing individuals as having a demand for household production services by a spouse, with market forces influencing the price of such services. In addition, we find that men benefit more from marriage than women and that this gender gap is more pronounced for older couples. This is likely to be due to social norms and prescribed gender roles which are more prevalent within the older generation.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-30
Number of pages	30
Journal	Review of Economics of the Household
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-016-9343-z
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 2016 Sep 9

Keywords

Gender asymmetry
Generation effect
Happiness
Intrahousehold bargaining
Marriage

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics and Econometrics
Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following Sustainable Development Goal(s)

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Happily ever after? Intrahousehold bargaining and the distribution of utility within marriage

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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