TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Chen, Shuai
AU  - Ours, Jan C. van
        TI  - Subjective Well-Being and Partnership Dynamics: Are Same-Sex Relationships Different?
        PY  - 2017/Sep/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 11043
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp11043
        AB  - Partnered individuals are happier than singles. This can be because partnership leads to more satisfactory subjective well-being or because happier people are more likely to find a partner. We analyze Dutch panel data to investigate whether there is a causal effect of partnership on subjective well-being. Our data allow us to distinguish between marriage and cohabitation and between same-sex partnerships and opposite-sex ones. Our results support the short-term crisis model and adaptation theory. We find that marital partnership improves well-being and that these benefits are homogeneous to sexual orientation. The well-being gains of marriage are larger than those of cohabitation. Investigating partnership formation and disruption, we discover that the well-being effects are symmetric. Finally, we find that marriage improves well-being for both younger and older cohorts while cohabitation only benefits younger cohort.
        KW  - subjective well-being
KW  - happiness
KW  - marriage
KW  - cohabitation
KW  - sexual orientation
        ER  -