Economic Effects of Marriages – Term Paper

When individuals get married, there are various economic implications of the same. Both women and men in the modern world supply their labor in the market. There are various effects on the supply for labor in the market when individuals are married. There are also issues that are related to gay marriage, and this also has some implications in the labor market.  

First, gay marriages are becoming a challenge to the employers who wish to balance between treating everyone equally and maintaining the reputation of their company. The companies that are in the course of deciding whether to hire a gay man are faced with the opportunity cost of losing many customers. The opportunity cost of hiring a gay person are the loss of customers to competitors, especially in a society where the people are conservative and do not support the issue of gay marriages. In such a case, the demand for goods and services decrease for the company, and this adversely affects the revenues and profits for the company. However, companies that hire gay people expect an increase in output and productivity because these people do not have to take leave to take care of their children. Since they can concentrate on the work that is assigned at the workplace, there are greater chances that the productivity in the companies increase and the supply of goods in the economy thus increase. The costs of production in such cases reduce because there is less paid leave and as the output of firms increase, the GDP of the economy grows.  

Marriages between men and women, on the other hand, have different economic effects. First, women have to be given leave when they have children and the men also get paternity leave. This is a cost to the firms that hire such people considering that they have to pay them even when they are on their leaves. This is an additional cost to the production of the companies. An increase in the production cost of a company usually reduces the quantity that is produced hence the reduction in the supply in the market.

While the labor market may be adversely affected by the individuals who are married, marriage usually lead to an increase in the population in the society. As more people in the society get married, the demand for consumer good since the economy increases. Raising the children requires that the parents buy more items such as clothes and food. The increase in a population usually stimulates the demand in the economy which encourages the production of more goods. This creates the demand for more laborers in the economy.

In conclusion, marriages have different economic effects to different stakeholders in the economy. To the employers, marriages may mean more costs of production as companies may be compelled to pay people who are on leave. On the other hand, gay marriages lead to more people who do not take their leave, and this is a cheaper option for the employers, though it comes with the opportunity costs of facing lost demand for goods because of the bad reputation of the company. Since population usually increase as a result of marriages, the demand in the economy increase and this leads to the rise in the price of goods and services in the economy. Investments stimulated and economic growth increases as the GDP increases.