2014年1月12日 星期日

5.2 Premarital cohabitation: revised 4

After the issue of cohabitation had raised, many economists and sociologists started to discuss how this phenomenon influence our society. To prove that cohabitation has positive effects and origins in the students group, I found a report which was researched and written by Richard Fry and D’Vera Cohnsenior economist and senior writer, respectively, of the Social & Demographic Trends project of the Pew Research Center.

  At the beginning of the report , it used a graph to summarize its points.
We can that the cohabitors of those who don't have a college degrees earn less money than those married ones, while the cohabitors of those who have a college degrees earn more than those married ones. I figured out that whether the cohabitors have college degrees or not, they choose cohabitation because of the cost of marriage is too high to undertake, the difference between these two groups was that those who don't have college degrees may be forced to choose cohabitation. It seemed like cohabitation could be kind of negative that poverty lead to cohabitation, but if we see deeper, we could found out that for those who received education, cohabitation could present a greater economic status. Below this graph, the authors also concluded,"This report finds that greater economic well-being is associated with cohabitation for adults with college degrees, but not for those without college degrees. " The education becomes widespread these years, so we could assume that this effect on higher academic degrees would spread widely with the education. 

  Further more, cohabitation could present part of women's independence. I found an article mentioned that Cherlin (1992), remarked,"Women's new-found financial independence and the spread of more individual-centered values eventually contributed to the instability of marriage. Changes in social standards meant that people no longer felt as obligated to remain in unhappy marriages. Financial independence meant that they did not have to. Besides increasing the divorce rate, changes in postwar economics and ideas caused the rise in delayed marriage and cohabitation.And Gary Becker (1981) also argued,"The single most important factor underlying social transformation related to lower fertility, divorce, and cohabitation has been the rise in the earning power of women. An essential change in the gender division of labor has followed women's increased participation in the waged labor force. This change has reduced the economic advantages and necessity of marriage, and consequently, divorce rates have increased and marriage rates have decreased. The reduced benefits of marriage and the specter of marital instability have made nonmarriage more attractive. Reduction in the expected economic gains from marriage has made men and women more hesitant to enter marital unions, but a shared household still offers economic advantages. Cohabitations make good sense because they capitalize on the benefits of a shared household without the economic risks associated with marriage." We can conclude that the cost of marriage was higher than its benefits sometimes. Especially when the concept of individual independence had raised up , people prefer to show their financial independence through not getting married, which seems to be more independent to make a living on their own.


Sources:
1.Living Together: The Economics of Cohabitation
BY RICHARD FRY AND D’VERA COHN
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/06/27/living-together-the-economics-of-cohabitation/
2.Cohabitation - Reasons For Cohabitation
http://family.jrank.org/pages/275/Cohabitation-Reasons-Cohabitation.html

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