In this paper, we test whether consumption choices are affected by personality traits and whether this impact is different for singles and individuals living in couples. To fulfill this aim, we test the impact of personality on preferences for different commodities using the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and estimating a system of Engel curves that includes personality traits as demographic shifters. The analysis is conducted on four different samples: single men, single women, childless couples and couples with children. The inclusion of personality traits among demographic shifters helps to reduce unobserved heterogeneity and improves the goodness of fit of the Engel curves specification by an average of 15.7%. In comparing the results for singles and couples, we find evidence of a consumption-based marital surplus for Mental Openness and Conscientiousness. These traits are characterized by positive assortative mating, and they have a significant and consistent impact on the expenditure for several commodities for both singles and couples. For instance, similarly open-minded partners are likely to spend household resources on culture, and their joint consumption of such goods may be a potential reason for their marital surplus.

中文翻译：

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性格特征与家庭消费选择

在本文中，我们测试了消费选择是否受到个性特征的影响，以及这种影响对于单身人士和夫妻生活是否有所不同。为实现这一目标，我们使用德国社会经济小组 (SOEP) 并估计将人格特征作为人口变化因素的恩格尔曲线系统来测试个性对不同商品偏好的影响。分析对四个不同的样本进行：单身男性、单身女性、无子女夫妇和有孩子的夫妇。在人口变化者中包含人格特征有助于减少未观察到的异质性，并将恩格尔曲线规范的拟合优度平均提高 15.7%。在比较单身和夫妻的结果时，我们发现了基于消费的婚姻盈余心理开放性和尽责性的证据。这些特征的特点是积极的分类交配，它们对单身和夫妻的几种商品的支出产生重大而一致的影响。例如，同样思想开放的伴侣很可能会将家庭资源花在文化上，他们共同消费这些商品可能是他们婚姻盈余的潜在原因。