Is Marriage as Good as a Contract?

Arbeitspapier

Neither marriage nor a legally enforceable contract serves any useful purpose if the parties have access to a perfect credit market. In the presence of credit rationing, efficiency and utility equalization are guaranteed only by a legally enforceable contract. Separate-property marriage may reduce and community-property marriage actually eliminate inefficiency, but neither of them guarantees utility equalization.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 4555

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Family and Personal Law
• Subject: contracts ; hold-up problem ; separate-property marriage ; community-property marriage ; divorce legislation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Cigno, Alessandro
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2013

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/89646
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET