25 Apr
2024
Fortunate Families? The Effects of Wealth on Marriage and Fertility
We estimate the effects of large, positive wealth shocks on marriage and fertility in a sample of Swedish lottery players. For male winners, wealth increases marriage formation and fertility, and there is suggestive evidence that divorce risk goes down. For female winners, the only discernible effect of wealth is that it increases short-run (but not long-run) divorce risk. Overall, the pattern of gendered treatment effects we document closely mirror the gender differences in income gradients in observational data. The gendered effects on divorce risk are consistent with a model where the wealthier spouse retains most of his/her wealth following a marital disruption. In support of this assumption, we show divorce settlements in Sweden often favor the richer spouse.