This paper examines how personality shapes joint consumption, the division of labor, and bargaining within marriages. We use individual-level data from the HILDA Survey on consumption, time use, marital stability, and personality traits. Our empirical evidence suggests a systematic link between personality and marriage dynamics, specifically, labor-market outcomes, divorce risk, and intra-household decision-making. To explain these patterns, we estimate a structural model of collective choices with endogenous marriage and divorce under limited commitment. In this framework, personality enters the household child-production function, the match-quality process, and individual labor-market productivity. Counterfactual simulations indicate that specialization, risk-sharing, and bargaining are the primary channels through which personality shapes marital behavior.
Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This means a lot to LISER, as one of its core missions since its creation has been to conduct high-impact research to better understand and help reduce poverty and inequality.
Economic Insecurity and PovertyInequality, opportunity and wealth
