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GETTING READY FOR THE MARRIAGE MARKET? THE ASSOCIATION BETWEENDIVORCE RISKS AND INVESTMENTS IN ATTRACTIVE BODY MASS AMONG MARRIED EUROPEANS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2007

PETTER LUNDBORG ,
PAUL NYSTEDT  and
BJÖRN LINDGREN
PETTER LUNDBORG
Affiliation:
Lund University Centre for Health Economics (LUCHE), Lund, Sweden Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Sweden Department of Economics, Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
PAUL NYSTEDT
Affiliation:
Lund University Centre for Health Economics (LUCHE), Lund, Sweden Department of Economics, Linköping University, Sweden Vårdal Institute, Lund University, Sweden
BJÖRN LINDGREN
Affiliation:
Lund University Centre for Health Economics (LUCHE), Lund, Sweden Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Sweden Vårdal Institute, Lund University, Sweden
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Summary

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This article explores to what extent married middle-aged individuals in Europeare governed by the risk of experiencing divorce, when shaping their physicalappearance. The main result is that divorce risks, proxied by national divorcerates, are negatively connected to body mass index (BMI) among marriedindividuals but unrelated to BMI among singles. Hence, it seems that marriedpeople in societies where divorce risks are high are more inclined to invest intheir outer appearance. One interpretation is that high divorce rates makemarried people prepare for a potential divorce and future return to the marriagemarket.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , July 2007 , pp. 531 - 544
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006