Research

The increasing prevalence of cohabitation in many countries has important implications for policy design and evaluation. This paper examines the effects of reforms to social safety net programs, highlighting the importance of accounting for the distinctive dynamics within cohabitation and marriage. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, I show significant differences between these union types, particularly in labor specialization and benefit use, suggesting varying levels of intra-household insurance. To understand the mechanisms at play, I develop a collective household model with limited commitment, incorporating endogenous marital choices, labor market frictions, and a detailed detailed tax and transfer system. Using the estimated model, I simulate reforms to unemployment insurance, social assistance, and joint taxation. A revenue-neutral rebalancing of unemployment insurance and social assistance generosity shows that neglecting relationship type heterogeneity leads to underestimation of policy welfare effects. These findings underscore the importance of considering the diversity of contemporary household structures when designing and evaluating policies.

This paper investigates the role of cultural norms, particularly religiosity, in shaping household behavior, with a focus on relationship choices and intra-household specialization. We develop and estimate a structural model of household formation and bargaining that incorporates religiosity, education, and marital status as key dimensions of heterogeneity. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we find significant differences in cohabitation and marriage rates between religious and non-religious individuals. Religious households, particularly married ones, exhibit stronger specialization, suggesting that both religiosity and relationship type shape intra-household divisions of labor. We identify two main mechanisms through which religiosity affects household outcomes: the perceived cost of divorce, which affects commitment and specialization incentives, and the elasticity of domestic production with respect to housework, which influences the potential for specialization and reflects gender role preferences or productivity differences. Our counterfactual simulations show that variation in housework elasticity explains a larger portion of the religiosity gap in marital and labor market behavior than differences in divorce costs. We also find significant variation in how these mechanisms affect different demographic groups defined by gender, education, and relationship type. Additionally, we examine the effects of demographic shifts, such as rising secularization and increasing educational attainment, on relationship choices and female labor supply. Our results suggest that secularization leads to a decline in relationship formation and a slight reduction in household specialization, while rising educational attainment increases marriage rates and slightly reduces female labor force participation. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers aiming to design effective labor market and family policies that account for cultural heterogeneity and evolving demographic trends.

This paper investigates how religiosity and education shape the division of labor within cohabiting and married households. We develop a theoretical framework that integrates matching dynamics and intra-household bargaining to explore the mechanisms underlying these relationships. Our model highlights two key ways in which religiosity may influence household specialization: by influencing marital commitment and by affecting housework output elasticity in domestic production. In contrast, education shapes specialization primarily through its impact on wages and the opportunity cost of domestic work. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we test the model predictions by analyzing relationship choices and time allocation patterns through survival and linear models. The empirical findings align with the theoretical predictions, showing that religiosity is associated with a higher likelihood of marriage among singles, lower divorce risk among married couples, and greater labor specialization, particularly within marriage. Conversely, education is negatively associated with specialization across both relationship types, with stronger effects observed among married couples. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of how evolving trends in religiosity and education may shape household dynamics, including family formation, marital stability, and labor supply, with important implications for social and economic policy.