“this means wealthy people do not necessarily choose to marry,” pugliese said. “and cohabiting couples are committed, meaning they may pool resources and enter joint homeownership as much as the married.”
those factors should similarly drive down the marriage wealth premium. it should be weaker in social-democratic contexts, and in contexts where alternatives to marriage have caught on and become more socially acceptable.
quebec is a curious case study. it is different than other provinces for two main reasons. one, is a welfare state that is on the whole more generous. the other is that, with the societal collapse of catholicism and its connection to marriage, cohabitation “has really become normalized and very prevalent,” pugliese said. in 2022, 43 per cent of couples living together were unmarried, compared to barely half that proportion everywhere else, with a national average of 23 per cent.
“so, i was expecting the marriage premium to be weaker in québec than in other regions. and this is what i found.” the marriage wealth premium, as pugliese shows, is much weaker in quebec than other provinces.
“my data do not allow me to parse out whether those differences between québec and other provinces are due to differences in social policy or in cultural norms surrounding marriage and alternatives, however,” pugliese said. her ongoing project is looking at exactly that.