De strategische waarde van het huwelijk voor de arbeidsdeling tussen levenspartners: Naar een verklaring voor de relatie tussen samenleefvorm en arbeidsdeelname van vrouwen.

Labor force participation is considerably higher amongst cohabiting women than amongst married women. Using bargaining theory this paper provides an explanation for this association, arguing that the decision not to participate in the labor force makes cohabiting women more vulnerable to the consequences of relationship dissolution than married women. To test the causal direction of the association between marriage and labor force participation a structural model is used that allows the marriage decision and the labor force participation decision to mutually influence each other. Both decisions are modelled to also depend on other variables like earnings capacity, presence of children, relationship duration and normative constraints. The model is estimated using data from 544 couples in the 'Households in the Netherlands 1994' survey. The results suggest that the association between marriage and labor supply is due to the negative effect of being married on labor supply, and not vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]