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Title: Essays on Marriage and Location Choice in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Relationships
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2022
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Abstract: This thesis studies how individuals who look for same-sex relationships sort in different states within the United States and its effect on the rate of same-sex relationships. These questions require the development of a comprehensive general equilibrium marriage model which accounts for premarital migration between states. The first chapter extends marriage matching models to consider individuals with different sexual orientations. The chapter gives sufficient assumptions to identify the match gains. Combined with the existence and uniqueness of a general equilibrium in marriage, we can analyze the effect of match gains on the marital rate through counterfactual analyses. The second chapter focuses on adding premarital geographical sorting to the general equilibrium matching model without same-sex couples. The model combines the marriage matching models with location choice models, where individuals can sort in different local marriage markets before choosing a partner. The model gives sufficient assumptions for the existence and uniqueness of an equilibrium given pre-migration population supplies, exogenous labor market earnings, and match gains. Identification follows a typical discrete choice strategy, with an additional discussion on handling the endogeneity of individual match utility on migration propensity. This model analyzes the interaction between the marital rate and migration decisions. The chapter illustrates the model's utility by examining the effect of earnings on migration and the marriage rate in the United States from 1960 to 2000. Both chapters' theoretical contributions are brought together in the final chapter to discuss the impact of sorting between states on the rate of same-sex relationships. The chapter outlines how combining both models leads to further difficulties in identifying match gains. The chapter gives additional assumptions sufficient for identifying match gains in this marriage model with premarital regional sorting. The model is then used to quantify the importance of moving between states for same-sex relationships. The model predicts that same-sex marital rates would decrease by almost 50% if individuals did not have a chance to move. Furthermore, 4% of lesbian women and 7% of gay men would change which states they live in if there were no difference in match gains between states. These rates decrease over time, indicating that social progress affects migration and same-sex marital rates across the United States.
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Authors: Makdissi, Etienne
Institution: University of Toronto
Department: Economics
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Pages: 1-171
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Family and Marriage, Gender, Population Mobility and Spatial Demography
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