Liberals and Marriage: Three Views

David Leonhardt recognizes that in addition to family structure depending on economic achievements and income inequality, it also drives economic outcomes. I agree. In my book The Marriage Motive (published by Springer, 2015) I argue that marriage influences whether we work or stay home, how much we work, what we produce at home and what we buy, and how we deal with our finances. Were the marriage-income relationship simply a reflection of how income affects marriage, it would not follow that marriage market conditions influence income. Research would not demonstrate that an indicator of marriage market conditions, the ratio of men to women in society—the sex ratio—affects what we buy, what we produce at home, how much we save, and our employment patterns. Where sex ratios are higher women work less in the labor force, men work more, and savings rates are higher, which in turn affects incomes and income inequality.