Matouschek, Niko; Rasul, Imran - In: Journal of Law and Economics 51 (2008) 1, pp. 59-110
We analyze the role of the marriage contract. We first formalize three prominent hypotheses on why people marry: marriage provides an exogenous payoff to married partners, it serves as a commitment device, and it serves as a signaling device. For each theory we analyze how a reduction in the...