Arbeitspapier
Subjective Well-Being and Partnership Dynamics: Are Same-Sex Relationships Different?
Partnered individuals are happier than singles. This can be because partnership leads to more satisfactory subjective well-being or because happier people are more likely to find a partner. We analyze Dutch panel data to investigate whether there is a causal effect of partnership on subjective well-being. Our data allow us to distinguish between marriage and cohabitation and between same-sex partnerships and opposite-sex ones. Our results support the short-term crisis model and adaptation theory. We find that marital partnership improves well-being and that these benefits are homogeneous to sexual orientation. The well-being gains of marriage are larger than those of cohabitation. Investigating partnership formation and disruption, we discover that the well-being effects are symmetric. Finally, we find that marriage improves well-being for both younger and older cohorts while cohabitation only benefits younger cohort.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 11043
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
- Subject
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subjective well-being
happiness
marriage
cohabitation
sexual orientation
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Chen, Shuai
van Ours, Jan C.
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
- (where)
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Bonn
- (when)
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2017
- Handle
- Last update
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10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Chen, Shuai
- van Ours, Jan C.
- Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2017