The benefits of marriage have been systematically underestimated in academic research and public policy, according to a groundbreaking new study.
This comes as the UK is experiencing record levels of family breakdown, with far-reaching consequences for children, public finances, and inequality. Understanding whether marriage itself contributes to stability is therefore a critical policy question.
Dr Harry Benson’s research found that being married substantially increases the chances that parents stay together, regardless of when marriage occurs – before, during, or after pregnancy – and regardless of socio-economic background. Dr Benson is head of the Marriage Foundation.
He adds: “If marriage itself contributes to stability, then policies that are neutral on marriage are not neutral in effect. Reducing social and fiscal barriers to marriage could therefore play a meaningful role in strengthening family stability and reducing the long-run social and economic costs of family breakdown”.
