Propensity to Marry and Heterogeneity in the Health Benefits of Marriage

Dmitry Tumin, Ohio State University
Hui Zheng, Ohio State University

Marriage is associated with good health, but the protective effect of marriage varies widely, such that some people experience substantial health benefits from marriage and others experience no benefit. Our study explores if the marriage effect on health is moderated by the likelihood of marrying. Using propensity score methods, we test for heterogeneity in the marriage effect on self-rated health and a scale of depressive symptoms in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort. We find only modest differences in the marriage effect between the married and the unmarried, and no evidence that the marriage effect is positively or negatively associated with the propensity to marry. Our findings suggest that when the likelihood of marriage is defined as a composite of many early-life factors, it does not substantially moderate the health benefits of marriage, contradicting the hypothesis that the same factors discouraging marriage also make marriage less beneficial.