Effects of Marriage on Family Economic Well-Being

Prepared by:
Robert Lerman
Urban Institute and American University

July 2002

This four-paper series examines the economic returns to marriage. Findings from the papers are synthesized in a Summary by Kelleen Kaye, senior analyst at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

• The first paper Marriage and the Economic Well-Being of Families with Children reviews the rich literature on this topic and the remaining three papers present new empirical findings using three different data sets and a variety of statistical models.
• Impacts of Marital Status and Parental Presence on the Material Hardship of Families with Children examines types of union formation among families and their relationship to well-being.
• How Do Marriage, Cohabitation, and Single Parenthood Affect the Material Hardships of Families with Children builds on the prior work by replicating and expanding the analysis of material hardship, including the role of help from family and friends.
• Married and Unmarried Parenthood and Economic Well-Being: A Dynamic Analysis of a Recent Cohort adds a longitudinal perspective to the analysis of marriage and economic well-being and uses several techniques to control for the selectivity into marriage.

Robert Lerman is the Director of the Labor and Social Policy Center at the Urban Institute and Professor of Economics at American University. His work was funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation.

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Last updated: 08/04/03