Does Marriage in Sweden Affect Child and Adult Outcomes?

描述（由申请人提供）：婚姻与儿童和成人的积极成果之间的联系已在许多研究中得到证实。已婚父母的子女有更好的教育和健康成果；已婚的成年人收入更高，身体也更健康。事实上，婚姻可以改善公众健康。然而，同居在美国越来越多，在瑞典也无处不在。考虑到同居在两国越来越普遍，了解同居对儿童和成人的影响对于理论预测婚姻的好处和制定促进婚姻的政策是很重要的。这项研究的目的是比较同居和合法婚姻对瑞典儿童和成人的影响。特别是，我们试图通过使用两种经验方法来确定婚姻对结果的因果影响：a)准自然实验-瑞典寡妇养老金的变化-来检查政策引起的婚姻状况变化的影响；b)兄弟姐妹和个人固定效应模型，以估计婚姻状况变化对儿童和成人结果的影响。我们寻求支持以解决以下研究问题：1)与已婚家庭结构相比，同居家庭结构对儿童教育和健康结果的相关性是什么？ 2)与婚姻相比，同居是否与成人收入和健康结果的改善相关？3)婚姻对儿童和成人的因果关系是什么？4)当政策改变时，婚姻对儿童和成人的结果有积极影响吗？5)婚姻选择的类型（自我选择与对政策变化的反应相比）对结果有影响吗？6)婚姻的持续时间会影响孩子和成人的结果吗？

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The association between marriage and positive outcomes for children and adults has been documented in numerous studies. Children of married parents have better educational and health outcomes; married adults have higher earnings and better health. Marriage may, in fact, improve public health. However, cohabitation is increasing in the United States and ubiquitous in Sweden. Given the increased prevalence of cohabitation in both countries, understanding its impact on child and adult outcomes is important in terms of theoretical predictions about the benefits of marriage and policies designed to promote marriage. The goal of this research is to compare the effects of cohabitation and legal marriage on child and adult outcomes in Sweden. In particular, we seek to identify the causal effect of marriage on outcomes by using two empirical approaches a) a quasi-natural experiment-changes in the Swedish Widow's Pension-to examine the impact of a policy-induced change in marital status; and b) sibling and individual fixed effects models to estimate the effect of a change in marital status on child and adult outcomes. We seek support to address the following research questions: 1) What is the correlation of cohabitating family structures compared with married family structures on child educational and health outcomes 2) Is cohabitation correlated with improved adult earnings and health outcomes when compared to marriage? 3) What is the causal effect of marriage on child and adult outcomes? 4) Does marriage have a positive impact on child and adult outcomes when it results from a change in policy? 5) Does the type of selection into marriage (self-selection compared with response to policy change) matter for outcomes? 6) Does the duration of marriage affect child and adult outcomes?