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included to capture not only constant differences in retirement, health insurance plans and housing
markets across geographical areas in the US, (such as house prices and mortgage rates), but also
cultural attitudes toward homosexuals and the presence of any legal provisions for homosexual
couples, such as domestic partnerships and civil unions. Clustering at the metropolitan level is used
(the PUMA area codes have been re-coded to make them unique across states). Observations are
weighed with the Census individual weights, to make the sample representative of the US
population and economy. For robustness checks purposes, data by individual age, race and gender
on the expected number of years left to live in the year 2000 is merged to our samples from the
National Vital Statistics Reports (CDC, 2002). We then use the absolute value difference of the
expected years of the head and the partner (spouse) as additional control to account for the number
of years that a couple can expect to spend together. The smaller this difference, the longer the
expected coincidence of life between partners, and therefore the higher the incentive to save in the
expectation of a longer period of time in which to spend their savings and enjoy public goods
together. This measure may play a role as a saving motive especially for the elderly sample (De
Nardi et al., 2009), and for homosexual couples, since they share the same gender and thus tend to
face more time together ahead of them, ceteris paribus.
Tables 1 and 2 present the descriptive statistics for the heads’ and partners’ (spouses’) main
variables in the elderly and young samples, separately by type of couple. On average, wives are
younger, almost as educated as men, and their health is similar to their spouses. Sexual orientation
and cohabiting status seem to matter for retirement income with elderly married couples owning
approximately $1,000 less in retirement and social security income than gay couples and $1,000
more than lesbian ones. Moreover, cohabiting heterosexuals own $4,700 less in retirement and
social security income than do their married counterparts. Also, across samples, the average number
of children is highest for married couples, lower for cohabiting and lowest for lesbian and gay
couples. Interesting features arise comparing homosexual to heterosexual homeowners. On average
same-sex couples, especially gay ones, own houses that are on average slightly more expensive than
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