MARITAL-STATUS AND MORTALITY - THE ROLE OF HEALTH

Prior literature has shown that married men live longer than unmarried men. Possible explanations are that marriage protects its incumbents or that healthier men select themselves into marriage. Protective effe cts, however, introduce the possibility of adverse selection. Those in poor health have an incentive to marry In this paper we explore the r ole of health in explaining mortality and marriage patterns, and disti nguish protective effects from two types of selection effects. We find adverse selection on the basis of health (unhealthy men tend to (re)m arry sooner) and positive selection on the basis of unmeasured factors that both promote good health and encourage marriage.