Marriage, adaptation and happiness: Are there long-lasting gains to marriage?

• The paper uses panel data to revisit the nexus between marriage, adaptation and happiness.
• Choosing an appropriate reference is crucial for the results.
• Contrary to many existing studies, there may be a long-time boost in happiness associated with marriage.
• The importance of selecting an appropriate reference may also be important for other estimates of adaptation, e.g. adaptation to injury.

This paper uses 23 waves of German panel data and investigates if individuals who decide to marry become permanently happier. Following the same persons over several years we show that they do, thereby challenging a number of recent longitudinal studies in psychology and economics which suggest that individuals fully adapt to the positive impact of marriage. Further, we compare different empirical approaches to measure the extent of adaptation and show that depending on the approach the same sample may generate evidence of full or partial adaptation. This result may be equally important for studies that analyze the nexus of loss compensation and habituation in the context of other life events.