Marriage promotion policy

Marriage promotion policy refers to policy, as chosen by governments or other large institutions, to encourage people to:

• Marry instead of not marrying
• Marry younger
• Find more stable marriages that can last longer

Goals of marriage promotion policy

1. Pronatalist goal: Marriage is an institution well-suited for childbearing and childrearing. Empirically, people are more likely to have children after marriage. Encouraging early marriage thereby encourages higher fertility.
2. Reduced cost-of-living goal: Married couples share living facilities and resources and therefore have lower per capita costs of living compared to singles. This enables them to save more and become wealthier. Couples also provide mutual insurance, so if one member of the couple gets into a problem (such as a health problem) the other member can provide emotional and financial support.

Methods of marriage promotion policy

Tax advantages for married couples filing together

The tax system often promotes marriage, particularly for couples with unequal earnings in expectation: couples filing jointly have about twice the basic exemption that an individual does, and slabs about twice as large for each marginal tax rate. This doesn't help couples if they have equal incomes, but can be quite helpful if one of them earns a lot more than the other.

There may also be more explicit tax incentives for married couples.

Additional allowances based on marital status

Some examples of these are:

• Employer-sponsored health insurance coverage for the entire family of a person working in a company
• Additional allowances for spouses of working people, given by their employer, perhaps subsidized by the government
• Larger welfare payments available for people in economic trouble who can demonstrate marital status (such as larger welfare payments for mothers who had children in wedlock than for mothers who had children out of wedlock)

Promoting dating and search for marital partners

• Government subsidies to or direct operation of dating agencies
• Government subsidies to the operation of places that are fertile grounds for finding like-minded partners, such as educational institutions, bars, parties, or cultural events.