Data and Code for: Collateralized Marriage

Data and code to replicate empirical results in "Collateralized Marriage."<br><br>Abstract: Marriage rates have become increasingly stratified by homeownership. We investigate this in a household model where investments in public goods reduce future earnings, and thus divorce risk creates inefficiencies. Access to a joint savings technology, like a house, "collateralizes" marriage, providing insurance to the lower earning partner and increasing specialization, public goods, and value from marriage. We use idiosyncratic variation in housing prices to show that homeownership access indeed leads to greater specialization. The model also predicts that policies that erode the marriage contract in other ways will make wealth a more important determinant of marriage, which we confirm empirically.<br><br>Data includes compiled Census / American Community Survey Data, PSID data, SIPP data, ATUS data, and FHFA housing price data, all of which are publicly available.