Observational studyDemography2018
The Economic Foundations of Cohabiting Couples' Union Transitions.
Observational study in Demography, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Marriage, Wealth, and the Spread of Cohabitation in Canada.The British journal of sociology · 2026Article
- Non-cohabiting Partners' Economic Characteristics and the Transition to Living Together in Germany: A Couple-Level Perspective.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2025Article
- Wealth and Family Formation: Insights from First Cohabitation, Marriage, and Birth in Germany.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2025Article
- Article
- Are Female-Breadwinner Couples Always Less Stable? Evidence from French Administrative Data.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2024Article
- Cohabiting couple's economic organization and marriage patterns across social classes.Journal of marriage and the family · 2024Article
- Cohabitation and Marriage Among Same-Sex Couples in the 2019 ACS and CPS: A Research Note.Demography · 2022Article
- Pooling of Wealth in Marriage: The Role of Premarital Cohabitation.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2022Article
- Economic Precariousness and the Transition to Parenthood: A Dynamic and Multidimensional Approach.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2022Article
- Cohabitation dissolution and psychological distress among young adults: The role of parenthood and gender.Social science research · 2022Article
- Rising nonmarital first childbearing among college-educated women: Evidence from three national studies.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Racial Pairings and Fertility: Do Interracial Couples Have Fewer Children?Journal of marriage and the family · 2021Article
- Marriage and Masculinity: Male-Breadwinner Culture, Unemployment, and Separation Risk in 29 Countries.American sociological review · 2021Article
- A Research Brief on Prospective Marital Expectations among Cohabitors with Initial Marital Intentions.Journal of family issues · 2020Article
- The Demography of Families: A Review of Patterns and Change.Journal of marriage and the family · 2020Article
- Article
- The Declining Labor Market Prospects of Less-Educated Men.The journal of economic perspectives : a journal of the American Economic Association · 2019Article
- Cross-National Comparisons of Union Stability in Cohabiting and Married Families With Children.Demography · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In recent decades, cohabitation has become an increasingly important relationship context for U.S. adults and their children, a union status characterized by high levels of instability. To understand why some cohabiting couples marry but others separate, researchers have drawn on theories emphasizing the benefits of specialization, the persistence of the male breadwinner norm, low income as a source of stress and conflict, and rising economic standards associated with marriage (the marriage bar). Because of conflicting evidence and data constraints, however, important theoretical questions remain. This study uses survival analysis with prospective monthly data from nationally representative panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation from 1996-2013 to test alternative theories of how money and work affect whether cohabiting couples marry or separate. Analyses indicate that the economic foundations of cohabiting couples' union transitions do not lie in economic specialization or only men's ability to be good providers. Instead, results for marriage support marriage bar theory: adjusting for couples' absolute earnings, increases in wealth and couples' earnings relative to a standard associated with marriage strongly predict marriage. For dissolution, couples with higher and more equal earnings are significantly less likely to separate. Findings demonstrate that within-couple earnings equality promotes stability, and between-couple inequalities in economic resources are critical in producing inequalities in couples' relationship outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
29470783What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.