Risk Aversion and the Timing of Marriage: Evidence from Japan

Shizuka Sekita, Kyoto Sangyo University

This paper conducts the empirical analysis on how the degree of risk aversion affects the timing of marriage, using the micro data on Japanese. One of previous studies, which used the U.S. data, finds that more risk averse individuals marry sooner regardless of sex and that the magnitude of the effect of risk aversion on the timing of marriage is larger for men than for women. However, I find that the risk aversion has a statistically significant effect on the timing of marriage for women, but not for men, with more risk averse women marrying sooner than their more risk-loving counterparts. This difference between Japan and the U.S. might reflect the difference in cultures and institutions.