摘要
婚姻匹配不仅对个人的生活轨迹有重要影响,还影响着社会结构和社会分层。而配偶之间的年龄差距,往往是婚姻匹配中首要考虑的因素之一,同时也反映了特定时期的社会风气和婚恋市场的基本情况。本文使用中国健康与养老追踪调查(CHARLS)数据发现,对于中国大多数中老年人而言,当丈夫比妻子年长时,可以提高夫妻的生活满意度,减少抑郁情绪,并且该效应随夫妻双方年龄差距的增加而增大;而从婚姻稳定性的角度看,丈夫比妻子年长将增加离婚风险,且夫妻年龄差距与离婚风险呈U形关系(丈夫比妻子年长1~3岁时的离婚风险最低)。分样本分析结果显示,丈夫比妻子年长时,对男性和女性的婚姻质量都有提高,同时会降低男性的离婚风险;对农村和城市居民的婚姻质量均有显著影响,并主要降低城市居民的离婚风险;会同时增加初婚和非初婚群体的婚姻质量,并会降低初婚群体的离婚风险。从影响机制上看,夫妻年龄差距可以通过双方认知能力、家庭背景差异和婚后生育子女三种渠道影响婚姻的满意度和稳定性。
Marriage matching not only has an important impact on an individual's life trajectory, but also affects social structure and social stratification. Age gap between spouses, as one of the primary considerations in marriage matching, reflects the social conditions and marriage market of a specific period. Based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) datasets, this paper finds that for most middle-aged and elderly people in China, having an older husband can improve a couple's life satisfaction and reduce depression level for both husband and wife, and the magnitude of the effect increases as the age gap increases. From the perspective of marital stability, having an older husband will increase the risk of divorce, and there is an ‘U-shaped’ relationship between age gap and risk of divorce (the risk is lowest with a husband being 1-3 years older than his wife).The results of subsample analysis show that when a husband is older than his wife, the quality of marriage improves for both husband and wife, for both rural and urban residents, and for both first-married and non-first-married groups. Meanwhile, the risk of divorce decreases for men, those living in urban area, and first-married group, when the husband is older. In terms of the mechanisms, age gap between couples affects the quality and stability of marriage through three channels: cognitive ability, family background difference, and childbearing.
作者
陈嫣然
秦雪征
Chen Yanran;Qin Xuezheng(School of Economics,Peking University)
出处
《劳动经济研究》
CSSCI
2019年第4期53-79,共27页
Studies in Labor Economics
基金
国家自然科学基金面上项目“人力资本的代际传递对经济增长的影响机制研究”(项目批准号:71573003)
北京市社会科学基金研究基地项目“新常态下人力资本对经济发展的贡献机制研究”(项目编号:16JDLJB001)的支持
北京大学“985”项目资助
