The Cost of Widowhood: A Matching Study of Process and Event

Zachary Van Winkle , § SciencePo and Nuffield College
Thomas Leopold, University of Cologne

We examine the mental health and economic consequences of widowhood in a novel way by assessing meaningful comparison groups allowing us to evaluate the impact of bereavement before and after the event. The analysis for focuses on two scenarios: unexpected and expected widowhood. The first scenario models a two-period process in which effects of widowhood occur only after the event. The second models a three-period process in which effects of widowhood also occur before spousal loss. HRS data and a combination of random-coefficient modelling, propensity score matching, and regressions are used to estimate the consequences of widowhood from ten years before to six years after spousal loss. Results on mental health show a slow but full recovery for unexpected widowhood, but larger and lasting declines for expected widowhood. Findings on economic wellbeing show sizable losses for expected widowhood due to the economic cost of the pre-widowhood period.

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 Presented in Session P3. Migration, Economics, Policies, History