Does Marriage Increase Couples’ Life Satisfaction?

Many contemporary studies find that married couples are more satisfied with life than unmarried people. However, whether marriage makes people or likely to marry remains a debated question. We reassess this relationship panel data from the German Family Panel (pairfam) and extend previous analyses by adding individual trajectories (slopes) standard fixed-effects regressions (FEIS). thereby able distinguish – controlling for time-constant unobserved heterogeneity there is in fact an effect of on satisfaction, who simply happier their get married, whose development satisfaction positive married. translate these different social mechanisms into analytical strategies OLS regression due its confounding effects between within persons overestimates satisfaction. A estimator reveals much lower compared those continue live apart together cohabitate. Additionally, using FEIS adjusting non-linear over time, suggests causal.
 * This article belongs special issue "Identification causal demographic research: The contribution data".