Age and Education Differences in Marriages and their Effects on Life Satisfaction

Authors: Groot W.¹; Van Den Brink H.M.²

Source: Journal of Happiness Studies, Volume 3, Number 2, 2002 , pp. 153-165(13)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

Within marriages husbands typically tend to be older and higher educated than their wife. This paper tries to explain this by analyzing whether age and education differences between spouses have an effect on happiness. Two alternative hypotheses are tested on the relation between age and education gaps between partners and life satisfaction. It is found that a positive age gap between husband and wife increases both male and female life satisfaction, while female life satisfaction increases if the education gap is smaller.

Keywords: marriage; life satisfaction; JEL classification: D61, I10, H51

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Health Sciences Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht The Netherlands; E-mail: wim.groot@beoz.unimaas.nl 2: Department of Health Sciences Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht The Netherlands

Publication date: 2002-01-01