TY - JOUR
T1 - The institution of marriage
AU - Bethmann, Dirk
AU - Kvasnicka, Michael
N1 - Funding Information:
An earlier version of this paper circulated under the title “Paternal Uncertainty and the Economics of Mating, Marriage, and Parental Investment in Children” (SFB 649 Discussion Paper 46, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2005). Our work has benefited from useful comments by Michael C. Burda, Andrew McClelland, Irwin Collier, Donald Cox, Kurt Helmes, Jong-Wha Lee, Thomas Siedler, and Harald Uhlig. We are also grateful to two anonymous referees for their constructive comments. Stephanie Andrews, Burcu Erdogan, Katja Hanewald, and Redzo Mujcic have provided valuable research assistance. All remaining errors are our own. Financial support by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, the Brain Korea 21 Program, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through the SFB 649 “Economic Risk” is gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 2011/7
Y1 - 2011/7
N2 - The institution of marriageis both old and ubiquitous. Yet, little work has been done by economists on why this social institution exists and why throughout history it has been intimately linked to fertility. We explain the institution of marriage as a societal consensus on the need to curb cuckoldry for the purpose of paternity certainty and biparental investment in offspring. By raising the costs of mating to individuals, marriage reduces cheating in society, a source of mating market failure, and makes paternity more certain. Men, in consequence, invest more in their putative offspring, a fact that also benefits mothers.
AB - The institution of marriageis both old and ubiquitous. Yet, little work has been done by economists on why this social institution exists and why throughout history it has been intimately linked to fertility. We explain the institution of marriage as a societal consensus on the need to curb cuckoldry for the purpose of paternity certainty and biparental investment in offspring. By raising the costs of mating to individuals, marriage reduces cheating in society, a source of mating market failure, and makes paternity more certain. Men, in consequence, invest more in their putative offspring, a fact that also benefits mothers.
KW - Institution of marriage
KW - Parental investment
KW - Paternity uncertainty
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85027924925&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00148-010-0312-1
DO - 10.1007/s00148-010-0312-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85027924925
SN - 0933-1433
VL - 24
SP - 1005
EP - 1032
JO - Journal of Population Economics
JF - Journal of Population Economics
IS - 3
ER -