by M.V. Lee Badgett, Ph.D. and Josh A. Goldfoot

Marriage is a personal and emotional commitment two people make to each other. And marrying someone often is a public announcement of that commitment.

With its mix of benefits and obligations, marriage encourages individuals to form economically stable family units that will provide life«s necessities for its members. Our nation's health care, pension systems, and social safety net have all been constructed around it.

Encouraging economically stable families has obvious social benefits. Children have increased access to parental resources, both economic and social. Adults will likely improve their own standard of living, share in the responsibility of child-rearing, and have built-in financial support during tough times.

Evidence further suggests that married adults are healthier and live longer than single ones.¹ As well, business and industry get a more stable customer base and a stronger current and future labor force. Though difficult to quantify, these are just some of the social benefits of marriage.

The institution of marriage promotes economic stability not just for heterosexual couples, but would also do so for same gender couples who will marry if allowed. Moreover, the costs of recognizing same gender marriages are likely to be negligible.

The failure to legally recognize those marriages undermines the larger social purpose of marriage and will be financially costly to any government. Through tax revenues and expenditures, marriage has a significant impact on governmental budgets -- particularly in terms of tax revenue and payments for means-tested assistance programs.

In this analysis, keep in mind that the state budget represents transfers of income throughout the state, and measuring the overall social impact -- on children, adults, and the health of our economy -- is not as simple as measuring changes in taxes and expenditures.

How many same-sex couples will marry?

Very little useful information exists for predicting how many same gender couples would marry if given the opportunity. We expect that couples will weigh the pros and cons.

The advantages of marrying include social approval, increased relationship security, and access to spousal benefits. Another advantage is that it creates a legal family relationship for inheritance, hospital visitation, and other purposes.

Disadvantages of marriage might include higher federal income tax payments or loss of eligibility for some social programs. however, available evidence suggests that such disadvantages at most have a small effect on the propensity to marry.²

Although all of these factors are relevant in some way for most couples, individuals will place different values on them. In the end, some lesbian or gay couples will decide to marry and others will not. Not knowing how many couples will marry, however, does not prevent us from estimating the economic impact of those marriages and the cost of nonrecognition.

Most of the significant benefits of marriage do not involve direct financial costs for the State or local businesses. For example, with no cost to anyone else marriage can save couples thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees for writing wills, living together contracts, and other legal documents to protect their relationship, property, and children. Other benefits, like the right to hospital visitation or to make medical decisions for an incapacitated spouse, involve no financial gain to the couple or loss to anyone else, but have obvious value to a patient and his or her spouse.

For the other potential costs of recognition versus nonrecognition, we start with the potential cost per couple. We then put the potential cost into the larger social context to provide a sense of its size and importance.

Marriage and the Social Safety Net.

A number of economic supports are created by marriage, among them:

• Many employers offer health and pension benefits to their employees and their spouses and children.
• Married couples must provide mutual financial support.
• Marriage automatically creates property, spousal inheritance, and social security survivor benefit rights in the event of divorce or death, all of which enhance the economic security of the family.

These private benefits of marriage have allowed state and federal governments to construct safety net programs that catch individuals when their families cannot provide adequate housing, health care, food, or income because of some financial misfortune, death or unemployment. These programs require that employed or financially able spouses contribute to the family's maintenance. But if a marriage is not legally recognized, no spousal support can be expected, increasing the state's financial burden for that family.

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