Love Actually? Dissecting the Marriage-Happiness Relationship

摘要

Using theoretical concepts based on identity economics, the present paper empirically tests the idea that adherence to social norms to get married can provide an additional utility gain from marriage. Norms to get married should be stronger among more traditionalist individuals, so they should put more emphasis on the mere fact of getting married and put less emphasis on match quality. In the empirical analysis, we used the East Asian Social Survey to estimate and compare both OLS and instrumental variables results. In line with the theoretical predictions, there seems to be an identity-based happiness gain from marriage for traditionalist individuals. These findings can be interpreted as evidence for identity-based utility effects from marriage. The results also show important differences between OLS and instrumental variables results, confirming the importance of addressing endogeneity properly.