The effects of income and children on marital happiness — evidence from middle- and old-aged couples

Abstract

This study finds that marital happiness initially increases with income and then remains more or less constant. It is likely that there exists an optimal number of children.

Notes

The test procedure follows Johnston and DiNardo (1997), pp. 257–59. The instrumental variables for K and K ² The test procedure follows Johnston and DiNardo (1997), pp. 257–59. The instrumental variables for K and K ² are MAYR, the husband's wage, educational attainment and age, and the wife's wage, educational attainment and age. It should be noted that since the number of children is a nonnegative integer, the Poisson model is used. Estimates of

and

² are then added in Equation 2, and a x ² statistic with 2 degrees of freedom is computed. The x ² is found to be 0.808 and its P value is 0.668. Therefore, exogeneity cannot be rejected.

One might doubt that different income levels could result in different optimal numbers of children. The intersection of I × K is also tested in each model, but it is insignificant and does not change the conclusion.