TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Carter, Susan Payne
AU  - Wozniak, Abigail
        TI  - Making Big Decisions: The Impact of Moves on Marriage among U.S. Army Personnel
        PY  - 2018/Jan/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 11308
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp11308
        AB  - We use exogenously determined, long-distance relocations of U.S. Army soldiers to investigate the impact of moving on marriage. We find that marriage rates increase sharply around the time of a move in an event study analysis. Reduced form exposure analysis reveals that an additional move over a five year period increases the likelihood of marriage by 14 percent. Moves increase childbearing by a similar magnitude, suggesting that marriages induced by a move are formed with long-term intentions. These findings are consistent with a model where the marriage decision is costly and relocation lowers the costs to making this decision. Our results have implications for understanding how people make major life decisions such as marriage, as well as the cost of migration.
        KW  - decision-making costs
KW  - relocation
KW  - migration
KW  - marriage
        ER  -