This paper presents a model of lifetime utility maximisation in which expectations of future
marital transitions play a role in the determination of work hours. Married people with
spouses who earn more are predicted to devote additional time to the labour market when
they are confronted with a high likelihood of divorce and vice versa. Similarly, work hours
should be positively associated with marriage probability for those single people who expect
to marry a higher earning spouse. These predictions are tested using data from the National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. Marriage and divorce probabilities are calculated from
Cox proportional hazard models and are included in regressions of annual hours. Married
women are found to work more when they face a high probability of divorce. This relationship
holds both over an individual’s life-cycle and across people with different inherent risks of
divorce. Similar results are found when a woman’s happiness with her marriage is used as a
proxy for divorce risk.