You can’t be happier than your wife. Happiness gaps and divorce

Article dans une revue: Based on three large panel surveys, this paper shows that happiness gaps between spouses are a good predictor of future divorce. The effect of happiness gaps is asymmetric: couples are more likely to break-up when the woman is the less happy partner. De facto, divorces appear to be initiated predominantly by women who are less happy than their husband. This asymmetry suggests that the effect of happiness gaps is grounded on motives of relative deprivation (i.e. comparisons of happiness between spouses) rather than on a preference for equal happiness.

Auteur(s)

Cahit Guven, Claudia Senik, Holger Stichnoth

Revue
  • Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Date de publication
  • 2012
Mots-clés JEL
D13 D63 D64 H31 I31 J12 Z13
Mots-clés
  • Happiness
  • Divorce
  • Comparisons
  • Panel
  • Households
  • Marriage
Pages
  • 110-130
Version
  • 1
Volume
  • 82