Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce, and Happiness in China
Published in Working paper, 2015
Governments and policymakers are increasingly aware of the importance of subjective well-being in policy and decision-making. Using five waves of data from the China Family Panel Studies, this paper uses the model of Zimmerman and Easterlin (2006) to study the effects of premarital cohabitation and marriage on subjective well-being in China. In addition to life satisfaction, we also add happiness as an indicator of subjective well-being. The results show that marriage has a “honeymoon” effect, that is, life satisfaction is significantly improved in the early stages of marriage (within two years after marriage), and life satisfaction returns to the premarital level two years after marriage. Marriage has a positive impact on happiness, but this effect gradually weakens over time.