This paper applies the theory of relational contracts to a model in which a couple decides whether to marry or cohabit … in a household can be supported by self interest. Since the costs of raising children are unequally distributed among … the legal costs of divorce, on the interrelationships among the decisions on marriage, fertility and divorce …

time to different activities. In order to do so, we empirically estimate a collective household labor supply model. The … main findings are that: (1) Leisure and household income are the most important variables in the utility function of the … male. (2) Leisure, total household production and total household production interacted with family size are important …

This paper is a survey of the literature on theoretical models of the household, paying particular attention to some of … the earlier contributions, and using them to place the current state of the theory in perspective. One of its aims is to … household's preference ordering over the utility profiles of its members depends on exogenous variables, in particular wage …

that spouses jointly spend on leisure, household chores and child care. By using a innovative matching strategy, this study … for childless couples. Work timing also influences the joint time that is spent on household chores, but the effect is …

The empirical literature addressing links between the labor and marriage markets is numerous. Despite this, the …-Coles (1997) do not apply for a marriage market linked to this labor market and discuss the consequences of this …

-cooperative model of household decision making to answer this question. We show that when women have lower wages than men, they may …

standard models of household behavior. Examples include: marriage contracts that serve as barriers to hasty divorces (e …This paper bridges two distinct areas of inquiry: the economic theory of the family and behavioral research on time …-inconsistent preferences. In our model, hyperbolic discounting couples engage in household production activities, thereby accumulating family …

of an efficiency loss. Efficiency can be restored through suitably designed marriage contracts because they can provide …) use of marriage is affected by the possibility of divorce …

This paper presents an inter-temporal model of individual behavior with uncertainty about marriage and divorce and … which accommodates the possible presence of economies or diseconomies of scale from marriage. We show that a scenario of … higher marriage rates and higher divorce rates will be associated with higher savings rates in the presence of economies of …