Marital Shocks and Mortality in France: Recent Evidence from Panel Tax Data

Carole Bonnet , Institut National d’Études Démographiques (INED)
Giulia Ferrari, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Anne Solaz, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Laurent Toulemon, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

Over the last decades, baby-boomers’ cohorts have experienced an increase in divorce and separation, cohabiting partnerships and remarriage. This high diversification of marital trajectories may have an effect on health and mortality risks among older population in the future. Beyond the selection effects of being in a union, marriage can play a protective role on health while divorce and widowhood can deteriorate health. Furthermore, the duration since the event and income may attenuate marital shocks. Using French census over the four last decades and two recent huge sample-size fiscal databases, our preliminary results show that being married (or in a civil partnership) is still protective, and even more than it used to be. Widowhood seems detrimental, particularly at younger ages, and especially in the first two years, for both sexes. We also find that income is a moderator of marital shocks, especially for men and at younger ages (50-65).

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 Presented in Session 16. Family Dynamics and Survival Patterns