Till Bad Health Do us Part? Gender Differences in Spousal Abandonment after Health Shocks

Marital dissolution can have profound negative economic and health consequences. These adverse consequences can be particularly severe for individuals who are already sick. A large literature has documented the health benefits of marriage, with spousal caregiving being an important source of informal healthcare for many older adults.  However, providing informal caregiving is also known to be physically and emotionally draining, and can crowd out employment or social activities.

Economic theories of household bargaining predict that unexpected health events, particularly among the spouse expected to live longest, may lead to divorce.  Alternatively, the healthy spouse may turn to coping mechanisms with adverse implications for their own health.  Studying the effect of health shock on marital dissolution and risky health behaviors is important because both life events have significant consequences on quality of life and survival. We use nationally representative survey data from married couples observed at least twice in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) between 1996 – 2010 to study spousal responses to acute and unexpected health shocks, specifically illness due to cancer, acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) or stroke.

Consistent with prior studies, we find no difference in the overall risk of divorce for couples that experience a health shock compared to those who do not. However, there are statistically significant gender differences in the likelihood of divorce after a health shock. Women who experience a health shock during the study period are 2.1 percentage points more likely to be divorced by their most recent HRS interview (p < 0.001).  This is a large effect; only 5 percent of the initially married sample divorce during the study period.  Our results are robust to inclusion of household income and wealth. Additional analysis will examine the mechanism behind the differences we document. In particular, we will study subgroups of households stratified by health at baseline and compare households where spouses appear matched on education and health and might face similar “outside options,” relative to more imbalanced households.   We will also assess the extent that spouses cope with health shocks through unhealthy behaviors, namely drinking and smoking.