Gain and Loss: Marriage and Wealth Changes over Time

Julie M. Zissimopoulos, University of Southern California

While considerable research has established a link between marriage and earnings, far less is understood about wealth - an important measure of well being at older ages. We employ eight waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study to study wealth and marital status changes among individuals over age 50. We incorporate measures of current and lifetime earnings, as well as mortality risk into models of wealth change; measure wealth loss and gain associated with divorce, widowing and remarriage; estimate wealth change before and after marriage changes so change is not the result of individuals entering or leaving the household. Our results suggest no differences in wealth change over time among individuals that do not change marital status over 7 years. Divorce at older ages is costly, remarriage is wealth enhancing and people appear to change their savings in response to changes in marital status.