In many developing countries, especially in Africa, marriage is of crucial importance to individuals, both traditionally and religiously. Considered a central institution within communities, marriage is a form of risk hedging between the couple (Burgess and Locke, 1945). People who marry hope to increase their marginal utility, in particular their level of well-being, through the union. The theoretical literature reveals two opposing theories on the relationship between marriage and economic well-being. The first, by Becker et al. (1977) and Becker (1991), argues that marriage improves the situation of families through the specialization of the individuals in the family, leading to greater productivity on the part of the father and mother. Moreover, the specialization and sharing of economic and social resources in marriage generates economies of scale and offers protection against unexpected events (Waite, 2000; Oppenheimer, 1994). However, the second theory supports and demonstrates the disadvantages of marriage for the couples who unite. For Umberson et al (2005), there is an inverse relationship between the number of years married and the benefits of marriage.
Empirically, analyses by Akerlof (1998) have shown that young married men are more likely to enter the job market than single men. Also, companies prefer married men and consider them more responsible and in better emotional health (Waite, 2000; Waite and Gallagher, 2000), so they are more productive and less likely to quit (Lerman, 2002). Furthermore, Blekesaune (2018) work argues that cohabitation offers similar happiness benefits to marriage, but not how never-married people perceive their overall life satisfaction. However, Addai et al. (2015) disagree with their predecessors, arguing that marriage is associated with negative subjective well-being among Ghanaians. The benefits of marriage may diminish after years of marriage (Liu and Umberson, 2008). Also, Gove et al. (1990) have shown that the marital relationship is highly personal and private, so tends to be unstable, and this instability compromises many of the benefits derived from marriage.
What emerges is a lack of empirical consensus on the relationship between marriage and well-being. Recent previous work analyzing this relationship has failed to take certain aspects into account. For example, Blekesaune (2018) does not distinguish between the different types of matrimonial regime in his study, which makes it impossible to assess the effect of each category on couples' well-being. Furthermore, the author uses happiness as a proxy for well-being, which limits his results. However, the present article uses a well-being indicator that takes into account food consumption, non-food consumption of non-durable goods and services, the use value of durable goods and the imputed rent of owner-occupied households, providing more relevant results compared with previous work that has used proxies to capture well-being. Furthermore, this article will contribute to the existing literature on the relationship between marriage and the well-being of married couples.
In Togo, marriage is governed by legal and customary provisions. In Togo, marriage is defined as the act by which a man and a woman establish a legal union between themselves. and lasting. Two forms of union are recognized by law: monogamy and polygamy. However, common-law marriages are becoming increasingly common in the country. The law also recognizes the practice of dowry payment, which must be symbolic. Statistics show that in Togo, married people make up a large proportion of the population. Beyond culture, this means that people who marry hope to benefit from the marriage through improved well-being. Figure 1 gives a brief overview of the marriage situation by gender in Togo. Indeed, 96.01% of men are married, compared with 45.45% of women. This is understandable insofar as, in the Togolese context, women marry between the ages of 15 and 30, but beyond this age, they find it difficult to get married. Also, culturally, society is still dominated by traditional norms. Women have to wait for men to pay a dowry (a symbol/synonym of marriage) to their family before they are considered married. As a result, they are less likely to marry than men. However, men can marry at any age.
Thus, the aim of this article is to analyze the effect of marriage on the well-being of married couples in Togo. Marriage is a central element of Togolese social and cultural life, defining community life and being at the heart of individual and family concerns. However, despite the importance of this institution, to our knowledge there are very few studies examining the link between marriage and couples' well-being. What's more, the majority of articles that have analyzed this relationship have done so in Western countries. Few articles have been conducted in the context of African countries. It is therefore important to see whether marriage, as a central element of social life, contributes to improving the well-being of couples in Togo.
The rest of the document is presented as follows: section 2 presents the well-being indicator in the different regions of the country. The methodology and data are presented in section 3. Results and discussions are presented in section 4 and the final section concludes.