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)

Access to Document

10.1007/s11150-016-9343-z

Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Happily ever after? Intrahousehold bargaining and the distribution of utility within marriage'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this

@article{f88b9060bc204fac87aae84d5118491a,

title = "Happily ever after? Intrahousehold bargaining and the distribution of utility within marriage",

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.",

keywords = "Gender asymmetry, Generation effect, Happiness, Intrahousehold bargaining, Marriage",

author = "Dirk Bethmann and Robert Rudolf",

year = "2016",

month = sep,

day = "9",

doi = "10.1007/s11150-016-9343-z",

language = "English",

pages = "1--30",

journal = "Review of Economics of the Household",

issn = "1569-5239",

publisher = "Kluwer Academic Publishers",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Happily ever after? Intrahousehold bargaining and the distribution of utility within marriage

AU - Bethmann, Dirk

AU - Rudolf, Robert

PY - 2016/9/9

Y1 - 2016/9/9

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Gender asymmetry

KW - Generation effect

KW - Happiness

KW - Intrahousehold bargaining

KW - Marriage

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84986308318&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84986308318&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11150-016-9343-z

DO - 10.1007/s11150-016-9343-z

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84986308318

SP - 1

EP - 30

JO - Review of Economics of the Household

JF - Review of Economics of the Household

SN - 1569-5239

ER -