文章基本信息

标题：Marriage and health: selection, protection, and assortative mating
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作者：Nezih Guner ; Yuliya Kulikova ; Joan Llull 等
期刊名称：Documentos de Trabajo / Banco de España
印刷版ISSN：0213-2710
电子版ISSN：1579-8666
出版年度：2017
卷号：1
出版社：Banco de España
摘要：Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the Medical ExpenditurePanel Survey (MEPS), we analyze the health gap between married and unmarried individualsof working-age. Controlling for observables, we fi nd a gap that peaks at 10 percentage pointsat ages 55-59 years. The marriage health gap is similar for men and women. If we allowfor unobserved heterogeneity in innate health (permanent and age-dependent), potentiallycorrelated with timing and likelihood of marriage, we fi nd that the effect of marriage onhealth disappears below age 40 years, while about 5 percentage points difference betweenmarried and unmarried individuals remains at older ages (55-59 years). This indicates thatthe observed gap is mainly driven by selection into marriage at younger ages, but theremight be a protective effect of marriage at older ages. Exploring the mechanisms behind thisresult, we fi nd that better innate health is associated with a higher probability of marriageand a lower probability of divorce, and there is strong assortative mating among couplesby innate health. We also fi nd that married individuals are more likely to have a healthierbehavior compared to unmarried ones. Finally, we fi nd that health insurance is critical forthe benefi cial effect of marriage.
关键词：health; marriage; innate health; protective effect of marriage; assortative mating;panel data; grouped-fi xed-effects estimator