What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of ...

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IZA DP No. 998

What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage? A Review of Quantitative Methodologies

David C. Ribar

January 2004

Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit Institute for the Study of Labor

What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage? A Review of

Quantitative Methodologies

David C. Ribar

George Washington University and IZA Bonn

Discussion Paper No. 998 January 2004

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IZA Discussion Paper No. 998 January 2004

ABSTRACT

What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage? A Review of Quantitative Methodologies

This study critically reviews quantitative methods that have been employed and evidence that has been gathered to assess the benefits of marriage and consequences of other family structures. The study begins by describing theoretical models of the determinants of different well-being outcomes and the role of family structure in producing those outcomes. It also discusses models of the determinants of marriage. The study then overviews specific statistical techniques that have been applied in empirical analyses of the effects of marriage, including standard regression, instrumental variables, selection and switching models, matching, non-parametric bounds, fixed effects, and latent factor (correlated random effects) methods. The study then reviews selected studies that have been completed in three domains of well-being outcomes: children's well-being, adults' earnings, and adults' physical health.

JEL Classification: J1 Keywords: marriage, well-being

David C. Ribar Department of Economics The George Washington University 2201 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20052 USA Email: dcr7@gwu.edu

What Do Social Scientists Know about the Benefits of Marriage? A Review of Quantitative Methodologies

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................ iii Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... iv I. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 II. Conceptual Models of the Effects of Family Structure............................................................. 3

Children's well-being.................................................................................................................. 4 Adult's economic and material well-being ................................................................................. 6 Adults' physical and mental health............................................................................................. 8 Marriage as a decision ................................................................................................................ 9 Implications for empirical analyses ............................................................................................ 9 III. Statistical Methods for Examining the Effects of Family Structure ...................................... 11 Cross-section methods .............................................................................................................. 12 Longitudinal/panel methods...................................................................................................... 17 More complicated descriptions of family structure .................................................................. 21 Nonlinear models ...................................................................................................................... 21 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 23 IV. Empirical Studies of the Effects of Family Structure............................................................ 23 Children's well-being................................................................................................................ 24 Adults' earnings ........................................................................................................................ 38 Adults' physical health and mortality ....................................................................................... 48 V. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 58 What the research from each domain can contribute to the others ........................................... 58 Appendix A. Overview of Statistical Techniques for More Complicated Models...................... 62 More complicated descriptions of family structure .................................................................. 62 Nonlinear models ...................................................................................................................... 64 References..................................................................................................................................... 68

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Acknowledgements This review was prepared while the author was a research analyst with the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The author thanks Sung Un Kim for research assistance and for preparing an initial draft of section IV.2. He also thanks Joseph Grubbs for helpful advice and substantive discussions with initial drafts. Other staff at the ACF, including Naomi Goldstein, Brendan Kelly and Howard Rolston, also provided useful suggestions. The author is indebted to several colleagues, including Bob Lerman, Daniel Lichter, David Loughran and Donna Ruane Morrison, who generously supplied references to innovative articles and studies along with helpful comments. Preliminary drafts of this report were presented at the 2003 ACF Annual Research Conference and the 2003 Annual Congress of the European Society of Population Economics. The views expressed are the author's own and are not necessarily shared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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