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rogeraarnold
rogeraarnold
Student
College - Freshman

ACORDING TO ECONOMICS, WHY ARE THE CELEBRITY DIVORCE RATES SO HIGH?

I SAW IN A BOOK THAT THE COSTS OF BEING MARRIED ARE HIGHER THAN THE BENEFIT IS THIS TRUE AND CAN YOU EXPALIN IT?

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Posted by rogeraarnold on Wednesday November 11, 2009 at 6:22 PM and tagged with business, economics.

Answers:


  1. pohnpei397 Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    Best answer as selected by question asker.

    Now that's a Freakonomics-type question.  One warning -- economics can't predict individual behavior with any kind of certainty.  But here's a possible explanation.

    What are the benefits of being married?  Potential answers would be:

    • financial security -- especially if one spouse makes a lot less than the other.
    • relatively easy access to sex

    Of course there are many other benefits, but they are things like happiness that economics doesn't really talk about.

    Look at these benefits -- celebrities don't need either of those.  Celebrities make plenty of money whether or not they're married so they don't have to stay in an unhappy marriage just to keep the financial support.  Presumably celebrities can pretty much get sex whenever they want it.

    So why stay married?

    Please realize, though, that this is speculative.  There are all kinds of non-economic reasons why celebrities get divorced more than regular people and they may make more sense than the economic ones.

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    Posted by pohnpei397 on Wednesday November 11, 2009 at 6:31 PM