Marriage, as IFS readers know, is in decline. That decline has not been equitable, with marriage dwindling far more among poorer Americans than the rich. In other words, marriage has become far more correlated with wealth—what was once a universal institution is now the reserve of the rich.
Is that relationship only correlative? Or does wealth protect against marriage-lessness? A new paper, published in the American Economic Journal, floats a novel theory: the value of a home works as a kind of collateral, making marriage more appealing than it otherwise would be.
The paper’s authors, Jeanne LaFortune and Corinne Low, start with the observation that marriage has grown less common among the poor than the rich. Specifically, they note, Americans who rent their homes are substantially less likely to have ever married than Americans who own. As late as 1940, they find, roughly 95% of both renters and owners ages 30 to 50 had married. Today, the figure is around 85% for owners but has plummeted to about 65% for renters.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Institute for Family Studies
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Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.
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