Ekonomiczne aspekty małżeństwa i kohabitacji

In the times of cultural changes, the liberalization of social norms and the increasing emancipation of women, we can observe the growing popularity of cohabitation. More and more people choose informal relationship instead of marriage. It is often believed that the form of relationship is meaningless. However, researches show that there are significant differences between marriage and cohabitation. These differences we can observe not only in functioning of couples and individuals, but also the whole society. The aim of this article is to present and analyze the differences between formal and informal relationships, especially differences connected with economic aspects, such as the level of wealth, the tendency to save, the amount of transfers from the family of origin, or the functioning on the labor market. The results of pilot studies on these aspects have been also presented. Preliminary results of analyzes allow to conclude a higher economic effectiveness of marriage and its more positive impact on economic processes.