The economics of marriage includes the economic analysis of household formation and break up, of production and distribution decisions within the household. It is closely related to the law and economics of marriages and households. Grossbard-Shechtman (1999a and 1999b) identifies three approaches to the subject: the Marxist approach (Friedrich Engels (1884) and Himmelweit and Mohun (1977)), the neo-classical approach (Gary Becker (1974)) and the game theoretic approaches (Marilyn Manser, Murray Brown, Marjorie McElroy and Mary Jane Horney).^[1][2] Marital status has a positive influence on economic status. There is a marriage prime for males that the wage of married males is 15% higher than the wage of never married male. The Uniform Marital Property Act issued clause on the distribution of marital property and individual property. The Uniform Premarital Agreements Act offers clauses to guide two spouses to make an agreement on distribution of rights and obligations before marriage.

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (January 2021)

Richard Wrangham puts forward the view that women cooking for men is fundamental to marriage in hunter-gatherer societies.^[3]

Many such examples suggest that the mating system is constrained by the way species are socially adapted to their food supply. ... The consequence of man's economic dependence takes different forms in different societies, but recall that according to Jane Collier and Michelle Rosaldo, his needing a wife to provide food is universal among hunter-gatherers. Food, it seems, routinely drives a man's marriage decision more than the need for a sexual partner.

This extends to men stealing women.^[4]

Among the Inuit, where a woman contributed no food calories, her cooking and production of warm, dry hunting clothes were vital: a man cannot both hunt and cook. The pressure could drive widowers or bachelors to neighboring territories in an attempt to steal a woman, even if it meant killing her husband. The problem was so pervasive that ... unfamiliar men would normally be killed even before questions were asked. Lust was not the motivation for stealing wives. "The vital importance of a wife to perform domestic services provided the most usual motive for abduction," according to ethnographer David Riches.

Jeremy Greenwood and Nezih Guner (2009) argue that technological progress in the household sector, say due to the advent of dishwashers, frozen foods, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, tupperware, etc. has reduced the need for labor in the home. As a result, it is much easier to live alone. This has resulted in a smaller fraction of the population being married and a higher rate of divorce.^[5]

93% of employers in the United States provide health insurance to married couples.^[6] There is marital wage premium for males, according to the survey “Summary Statistics of White Young Men Classified by Marital Status in 1976”, which was done by Korenman and Neumark, the hourly wage of married spouses present is $6.57, and hourly wage of the never married is $5.56, which was approximately 15% lower than that of the married spouse present.^[7]

There may be many reasons to not get married such as fear of commitment, family disapproval, genetic incompatibility, etc... However, financial reasons hold the biggest weight and especially in the older adult community. Forbes magazine article by Dan Browning, discussed several reasons why aging adults should cohabit instead of marrying.^[14] One of the things that were suggested to Browning by his financial adviser and tax accountant is that marrying late can affect health insurance of partners. An anecdote is presented by these financial advisors that considers that upon retirement at the age of 65, a spouse who was benefiting from the health insurance of their spouse's job will find it difficult to qualify for a subsidized health care plan.^[14] A second reason is that later on in life individuals are usually financially affluent hence leading to higher taxation when married and filing jointly. Browning's article gives another example of an older adult couple who married at the age of 60 but had to divorce because their tax bill increased by $40,000 due to their high individual assets.^[14]  

Continually, the cost of getting married is a major reason why many couples avoid marriage. From the above data from WeddingWire's 2019 Newlywed report in the United States, the average cost to get married is $38,700.^[10] This amount is the equivalent of the average student loan debts or a down payment on a house. Such financial investment for one day is not worth the burden. Along lines of student loans, people avoid marriage because it leads to combined student loan which leads to a higher repayment compared to when single (Hamer). Thirdly, people avoid marriage because it can affect their credit score in the event their spouse has a bad credit. Lastly but not limited to, marriage is avoided because the cost of divorce when things do not work out is expensive (see Divorce section for more details).^[15]

Divorce is the other end of marriage that couples often do not go into marriage hoping to do. Although the past years rates of divorce have been decreasing as a result of individuals marrying late and rise in education, there is still a common trend of it in the lower and less educated social class. The CDC reports that of the 2,236,496 marriages 787,251 couples ended in a divorce.^[27] This means that 35 percent of marriages ended in divorce with an overall industrial worth of $50 billion yearly.^[28] The significance of this data in relation to the topic of the economy of marriage can be explained by a report given by Jay Zagorsky, the writer of Marriage and Divorce's Impact on Wealth. This report revealed that over the course of time it is more profitable to stay married than to have a divorce. According to the article by Zagorsky, “Married respondents experience per person net worth increases of 77 percent over single respondents. [While] divorced respondents’ wealth starts falling four years before divorce and they experience an average wealth drop of 77 percent.”^[29] Mary Corcoran study done in 1994 looked at the same families while they were married and when they separated. The study shows that the family income that once averaged $43,600 (married) declined to averaging $25,300.^[30][31] One of the causes of this contrast is that, married couples are more likely to invest because of their commitment to each other hence the reason why many are homeowners compared to their single counterparts. A second reason for this is that married couples share things together unlike separated or single individuals. As a married household there ought to be no need for multiple of the same home appliances, maybe cars, and they can divide the labour and expenses of raising children/housework.^[28] A second facet to consider when looking at divorce in relations to the economic of marriage is that of children. A study done by Julia Heath and B. F. Kiker reveal that compared to any other population single-mother headed households are susceptible to poverty. Secondary data collected for this study reports that, “changes in family structure precede poverty spells in over 99 percent of the white single-mother families…and in almost 97 percent of black families."^[32] Another study related to this data by saying, “75 percent of all women who apply for welfare benefits do so because of a disrupted marriage or a disrupted relationship in which they live with a male outside of marriage”.^[30] The parent that took the children under their possession experiences an overall decline in his/her income.

• Cost of raising a child
• Parental dividend
• Demographic economics
• Economic imperialism (economics)
• Family economics
• Hypergamy
• Partner effects