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 ISSN 1471-0498
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICSDISCUSSION PAPER SERIES
MARRIAGE AND CONSUMPTIONLaura Blow, Martin Browning and Mette Ejrnaes
 Number 427April 2009
Manor Road Building, Oxford OX1 3UQ
 
Marriage and consumption.
Laura BlowInstitute for Fiscal StudiesMartin BrowningDepartment of EconomicsUniversity of OxfordMartin.Browning@economics.ox.ac.ukMette EjrnæsDepartment of EconomicsUniversity of CopenhagenMette.Ejrnes@econ.ku.dkMarch 2009JEL classi…cation: D12, D91, J12.Keywords: marriage, consumption, saving, family economics, economies of scale.
 
Abstract
We examine theoretically and empirically consumption over the early part of the life-cycle. Themain focus is on the transition from being single to living with someone else. Our theoreticalmodel allows for publicness in consumption; uncertainty concerning marriage; di¤erences betweenlifetime incomes for prospective partners and a marriage premium. We develop a two period modelto bring out the main features of the impact of marriage on consumption and saving. We thendevelop a multi-period model that can be taken to the data on expenditures by singles and couplesaged between
18
and
30
. Our empirical work is based on individual based quasi-panels from UKexpenditure survey data from
1978
to
2005
. The model …ts the data relatively well. We …nd thatexpenditure by couples leads to
20
40
% more consumption than the same expenditure splitbetween two comparable singles.
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