Beyond economic bargaining power? Work-related internal migration and subjective well-being in couples

Abstract Bargaining theory posits that both partners’ utility shapes couples’ migration decisions. Yet, most empirical tests focus on individual incomes, thus overlooking non-economic factors in couples’ deliberations about spatial mobility. We argue that considering holistic indicators of utility, such as subjective well-being, can advance our understanding of couples’ decision-making. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP, 1991–2021) and fixed effects panel regressions, we analyze changes in life satisfaction following work-related internal migration on both individual and dyadic levels. Moreover, we examine whether these changes depend on shifts in partners’ economic bargaining power (EBP, defined as female partners’ share of total household labor income), thereby evaluating the common assumption that couples’ bargaining centers around income. Our results show that, on average, both partners experience increases in their life satisfaction following migration. Distinguishing whether women’s EBP remains unchanged, decreases, or increases with migration, we find that women’s life satisfaction gains are only weakly related to changes in their EBP. In contrast, men’s life satisfaction only increases if their partner’s EBP decreases or remains unchanged, but not if it increases—a pattern consistent with the notion of gendered expectations about the within-couple income distribution hampering men’s well-being gains. Overall, our findings suggest that well-being is an important factor in couples’ migration decision-making and that income-based measures of bargaining power provide only an incomplete account of partners’ bargaining positions.