TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Adamopoulou, Effrosyni
AU  - Hannusch, Anne
AU  - Kopecky, Karen A.
AU  - Obermeier, Tim
        TI  - Cohabitation, Child Development, and College Costs
        PY  - 2025/Oct/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18237
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp18237
        AB  - US college-educated couples with children marry at higher rates than those without a college degree. We argue that marriage, which entails lower separation risk and more equitable asset division if separation occurs, provides insurance to the lower-earning spouse, facilitating child investment. Investing in children is more valuable for college-educated couples, who are more likely to send their children to college. Using an OLG model of marriage, cohabitation, wealth accumulation, and educational investments where college is costly and completion is risky, we find that high college costs reduce incentives to marry among couples without a college degree. These differences in union choice by education heighten differences in children’s educational attainment and reduce intergenerational mobility.
        KW  - college costs
KW  - human capital accumulation
KW  - child development
KW  - marriage
KW  - cohabitation
KW  - intergenerational mobility
        ER  -