New Evidence on the Causes of Educational Homogamy

Educational homogamy is an important but poorly understood source of inequality. This paper analyzes a group of men and women who do not meet their spouses in school, are not sorted by education at work, and have no financial incentives to marry educated spouses. Nevertheless, movie actors show a strong tendency to sort positively on education in marriage. These findings suggest that male and female preferences alone induce considerable sorting on education in marriage and that men and women have very strong preferences for nonfinancial partner traits correlated with years of educationEducational Homogamy; Sorting; Inequality; Marriage

Male and Female Marriage Returns to Schooling

A collective marriage matching model is estimated and calibrated to quantify the share of returns to schooling that is realized through marriage. The predictions of the model are matched with US data on the relationship between schooling and wage rates, the division of time within the household, and the extent to which men and women sort positively on several traits in marriage. Counterfactual analysis conducted with the model, suggests that US middle aged men and women are earning in the order of 30 percent of their return to schooling through improved marital outcomes.Marriage; Sorting; Returns to Education

The Dynamics of Marriage and Divorce

We formulate and estimate a dynamic model of marriage, divorce, and remarriage using 27 years of panel data for the entire Danish cohort born in 1960. The marital surplus is identified from the probability of divorce, and the surplus shares of husbands and wives from their willingness to enter marriage. Education and marriage order are complements in generating gains from marriage. Educated men and women receive a larger share of the marital gains but this effect is mitigated when their proportion rises. Education stabilizes marriage and second marriages are less stable. As the cohort ages, uneducated men are the most likely to be single.marriage, divorce, sorting

Changing Property Rights in the Family: Evidence from an Inheritance Reform

We analyze a Swedish reform that shifted the right to inherit an estate from children to parents. If parents are altruistic toward children and there are no transaction costs, a change of property rights in the family has no impact on the consumption of parents and children. We test and reject this prediction with new hand-collected data on wills and estates linked to panel data on labor supply and durable consumption. Our results show that the inheritance reform increased parents’ car ownership, increased the fraction of parents living in a house, and reduced parents’ labor supply. The magnitude of this response suggests that parents reacted to the reform as if all wealth previously inherited by children expanded their own budget constraint. The frequency and contents of parents’ wills reveal that many parents, especially the wealthy, used wills to protect their spouses from claims on the estate made by children

The Dynamics of Marriage and Divorce

International audienceWe formulate and estimate a dynamic model of marriage, divorce and remarriage using 27 years old panel data for the enrire Danish cohort born in 1960. The marital surplus is identified from the probability of divorce, and the surplus shares of husband and wives from their willingness to enter marriage. Eduaction and marraige order are complements in generating gains from marriage. Educated men and women receive a larger share of the marital gains but this effect is mitigated when their proportion rises. Education stabilizes marriage and second marriage are less stable. As the cohort ages, uneducated men are the most likely to be single

Earnings and work loss from 5 years before to 5 years after bariatric surgery: A cohort study.

BackgroundThe personal economic impact of bariatric surgery is not well-described.ObjectivesTo examine earnings and work loss from 5 years before to 5 years after bariatric surgery compared with the general population.SettingNationwide matched cohort study in the Swedish health care system.MethodsPatients undergoing primary bariatric surgery (n = 15,828) and an equal number of comparators from the Swedish general population were identified and matched on age, sex, place of residence, and educational level. Annual taxable earnings (primary outcome) and annual work loss (secondary outcome combining months with sick leave and disability pension) were retrieved from Statistics Sweden. Participants were included in the analysis until the year of study end, emigration or death.ResultsFrom 5 years before to 5 years after bariatric surgery, earnings increased for patients overall and in subgroups defined by education level and sex, while work loss remained relatively constant. Bariatric patients and matched comparators from the general population increased their earnings in a near parallel fashion, from 5 years before (mean difference -$3,489 [95$4,164 [-4,709 to -3,619]). Work loss was relatively stable within both groups but with large absolute differences both at 5 years before (1.09 months, [95%CI 1.01 to 1.17]) and 5 years after surgery (1.25 months, [1.11 to 1.40]).ConclusionsFive years after treatment, bariatric surgery had not reduced the gap in earnings and work loss between surgery patients and matched comparators from the general population

Weight Loss and Heart Failure A Nationwide Study of Gastric Bypass Surgery Versus Intensive Lifestyle Treatment

BACKGROUND: Associations of obesity with incidence of heart failure have been observed, but the causality is uncertain. We hypothesized that gastric bypass surgery leads to a lower incidence of heart failure compared with intensive lifestyle modification in obese people. METHODS: We included obese people without previous heart failure from a Swedish nationwide registry of people treated with a structured intensive lifestyle program and the Scandinavian Obesity Surgery Registry. All analyses used inverse probability weights based on baseline body mass index and a propensity score estimated from baseline variables. Treatment groups were well balanced in terms of weight, body mass index, and most potential confounders. Associations of treatment with heart failure incidence, as defined in the National Patient Register, were analyzed with Cox regression. RESULTS: The 25 804 gastric bypass surgery patients had on average lost 18.8 kg more weight after 1 year and 22.6 kg more after 2 years than the 13 701 lifestyle modification patients. During a median of 4.1 years, surgery patients had lower heart failure incidence than lifestyle modification patients (hazard ratio, 0.54; 95% confidence interval, 0.36-0.82). A 10-kg achieved weight loss after 1 year was related to a hazard ratio for heart failure of 0.77 (95% confidence interval, 0.60-0.97) in both treatment groups combined. Results were robust in sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Gastric bypass surgery was associated with approximately one half the incidence of heart failure compared with intensive lifestyle modification in this study of 2 large nationwide registries. We also observed a graded association between increasing weight loss and decreasing risk of heart failure

Comparison of Sleeve Gastrectomy vs Intensive Lifestyle Modification in Patients With a BMI of 30 to Less Than 35

IMPORTANCE There is a lack of studies evaluating sleeve gastrectomy compared with intensive lifestyle treatment in patients with class 1 obesity (body mass index [BMI] 30 to <35 [calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared]). OBJECTIVE To compare outcomes and safety of sleeve gastrectomy compared with intensive nonoperative obesity treatment in patients with class 1 obesity. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This matched, nationwide cohort study included patients with class 1 obesity who underwent a sleeve gastrectomy or intensive lifestyle treatment between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2017, and who were registered in the Scandinavian Obesity Surgery Registry or the Itrim health database. Participants with class 1 obesity were matched 1:2 using a propensity score including age, sex, BMI, treatment year, education level, income, cardiovascular disease, and use of antibiotic drugs, antidepressants, and anxiolytics. INTERVENTIONS Sleeve gastrectomy or intensive lifestyle treatment. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Outcomes included weight loss after intervention, changes in metabolic comorbidities, substance use disorders, self-harm, and major cardiovascular events retrieved from the National Patient Register, Prescribed Drug Register, and Cause of Death Register as well as the Scandinavian Obesity Surgery Registry and the Itrim health database. Data were analyzed from December 1, 2021 until May 31, 2022. RESULTS The study included 1216 surgery patients and 2432 lifestyle participants with similar mean (SD) BMI (32.8 [1.4] vs 32.9 [1.4]), mean (SD) age (42.4 [9.7] vs 42.6 [12.7] years), and sex (1091 [89.7%] vs 2191 [90.1%] women). Surgery patients had greater 1-year weight loss compared with controls (22.9 kg vs 11.9 kg; mean difference, 10.7 kg; 95% CI, 10.0-11.5 kg; P < .001). Over a median follow-up of 5.1 years (IQR, 3.9-6.2 years), surgery patients had a lower risk of incident use of diabetes drugs (59.7 vs 100.4 events per 10 000 person-years; hazard ratio [HR], 0.60; 95% CI, 0.39-0.92; P = .02) and greater 2-year diabetes drug remission (48.4% vs 22.0%; risk difference 26.4%; 95% CI, 11.7%-41.0%; P < .001), but higher risk for substance use disorder (94 vs 50 events per 10 000 person-years; HR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.30-2.67; P < .001) and self-harm (45 vs 25 events per 10 000 person-years; HR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.09-3.01; P = .02). No between-group difference in occurrence of major cardiovascular events was observed (23.4 vs 24.8 events per 10 000 person-years; HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.49-1.91; P = .92). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this cohort study, compared with intensive nonoperative obesity treatment, sleeve gastrectomy in patients with class 1 obesity was associated with greater weight loss, diabetes prevention, and diabetes remission but a higher incidence of substance use disorder and self-harm

Marriage and divorce after military deployment to Afghanistan: A matched cohort study from Sweden.

AIM:To investigate the probability of marriage and divorce among Swedish military veterans deployed to Afghanistan relative to non-deployed matched comparators. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING:Matched cohort study in Sweden. PARTICIPANTS:Military veterans were identified through Swedish military personnel registers regarding foreign deployments, and comparators from the Military Service Conscription Register (1969-2013). Of 1,882,411 eligible conscripts, 7041 had served in Afghanistan at some point in time between 2002 and 2013. To each military veteran, up to 5 non-deployed comparators who underwent conscription were matched by age, sex, psychological assessment, cognitive ability, psychiatric history and social characteristics. After matching there were 4896 (82%) unmarried and 1069 (18%) married deployed military veterans. The main outcome was marriage or divorce after deployment to Afghanistan. Data on marital status were retrieved from Statistics Sweden until December 31, 2014. RESULTS:During a median follow-up of 4.1 years after deployment of married individuals, 124 divorces were observed among deployed military veterans and 399 in the matched non-deployed comparator cohort (277 vs. 178 per 10,000 person-years; adjusted hazard ratio 1.61, 95%CI 1.31-1.97). During a median follow-up of 4.7 years after deployment in the unmarried cohort, 827 new marriages were observed among deployed military veterans and 4363 in the matched non-deployed comparators cohort (399 vs. 444 per 10,000 person-years; adjusted hazard ratio 0.89, 95%CI 0.83-0.96). CONCLUSION:Military veterans were more likely to divorce and less likely to marry after deployment compared with matched non-deployed comparators