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Marriage in Old Age: What Can We Learn About Policy Impacts on Same-Sex Couples?

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  • Leora Friedberg
  • Elliott Isaac

Abstract

Tax or transfer benefits in the United States are often conditioned on marital status, creating complicated incentives that reward marriage for some couples and penalize it for others. Same-sex couples, who only recently gained the right to marry, now face the same marriage incentives that different-sex couples faced for decades. We highlight marriage incentives affecting older couples, who have rarely been studied. Using the American Community Survey, we estimate decreases in the propensity to marry among older, previously married women, which are consistent with remarriage disincentives from Social Security and marriage disincentives from Medicaid that are more salient for women.

Suggested Citation

  • Leora Friedberg & Elliott Isaac, 2023. "Marriage in Old Age: What Can We Learn About Policy Impacts on Same-Sex Couples?," National Tax Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(3), pages 679-706.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:nattax:doi:10.1086/725892
    DOI: 10.1086/725892
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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