Personality Traits, the Marriage Market, and Household Behavior

Gaston P. Fernandez and Mariia Kovaleva

No 2024-21, Working Papers ECARES from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: We develop an empirical framework to analyze the dynamic effect of personality traits in marriage market patterns and intrahousehold decisions. We exploit detailed information at the individual level from the HILDA survey about consumption, labor supply, time use, and personality traits (as measured by the Big Five). First, we document that personality types are related to marital and divorce patterns, time allocated to both market and non-market labor activities, and the evolution of earnings. To rationalize these empirical facts, we build a life-cycle model that integrates endogenous household formation and collective household choices under limited commitment. Our framework allows personality to affect both wage processes and individual preferences. In the latter, personality traits enter indirectly through household production and the utility of marriage (match quality). We use the estimates of our model to conduct counterfactuals associated with intrahousehold behavior

Keywords: Marriage; Limited commitment; Personality traits; Time use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 p.
Date: 2024-10
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